Two demonstrators died in Baghdad early on Monday after being shot with tear gas canisters in confrontations with security forces, medics said, the first victims of protest-related violence under Iraq's new premier.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media that the deaths threaten to reignite a country-wide protest movement that erupted in October over government graft and incompetence but had died down in recent months.

On Sunday, demonstrators staged angry rallies over power outages in the capital and several southern cities, where temperatures topping 50 degrees Celsius have overwhelmed electricity generators.