Iraq: Car bombings kill at least 23 people in southern city

BAGHDAD (AP) — Militants on Sunday unleashed dual car bomb attacks in southern Iraq, killing at least 23 people and wounding dozens, officials said, at a time when the country's government is struggling with mounting public unrest in the capital over delays in promised reform plans.

The attacks came hours after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered authorities to arrest and prosecute protesters who attacked security forces, lawmakers and damaged state property after breaking into Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone to protest delays in reform plans.

Al-Abadi's statement came a day after hundreds of angry anti-government followers of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr tore down blast walls and poured into the parliament building, exacerbating a long-simmering political crisis.

Al-Sadr and his supporters want to reform the political system put in place following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, in which entrenched political blocs representing the country's Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds rely on patronage, resulting in widespread corruption and poor public services.

Iraq has been mired in a political crisis for months, hindering the government's ability to combat the Islamic State group — which still controls large areas of the country's north and west — or address a financial crisis largely prompted by the plunge in global oil prices.