BAGHDAD (AP) — The death toll from protests in Iraq has climbed to 42 after a senior government official in the country's south said 12 protesters died in a fire they started while storming the office of powerful militia during a rally there a day earlier.

The anti-government protests erupted Friday after leaderless, spontaneous revolts were violently quelled earlier this month in the war-torn country.

The southern official says that in Diwaniyah town, bodies were being removed on Saturday from a building belonging to a powerful militia where the protesters set it on fire on Friday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't allowed to talk to reporters.

In the capital, Baghdad, protesters gathered again on Saturday in the central Tahrir Square but there were no immediate reports of violence.