Iraqi students protest after overnight clashes

Hundreds of students marched against the militia attack on Najaf protesters at rallies in Baghdad's central Tahrir Square and in the oil-rich city Basra in southern Iraq on Thursday.

Iraqi protesters converged on Baghdad's Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the four-month anti-government protest movement, to condemn the militia attack on Najaf protesters late night on Wednesday.

At least eight anti-government protesters were shot dead and 52 were wounded in clashes with followers of a radical Shiite cleric in Najaf on Wednesday, Iraqi medical officials and activists said.

The violence came as new divisions emerged among protesters and supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr, who initially threw his weight behind the uprising.

But he then re-positioned himself toward the political establishment after political elites selected Mohammed Allawi as prime minister-designate, a candidate he endorsed.

Since then, al Sadr has issued a dizzying array of calls to followers, asking them to return to the streets days after withdrawing support from protests.

Al Sadr on Wednesday took to Twitter to urge his supporters to once again return to the streets. 

The often-contradictory orders have exacerbated existing tensions between anti-government demonstrators and his followers, with some activists claiming al-Sadr's followers had threatened them to toe the cleric's line or leave protest sites.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Basra university students took to the city's streets on Thursday in solidarity with Najaf's protesters, chanting and condemning the government for not being able to protect the protesters.