In Iraq protests, counting the dead is a dangerous job

One protester killed. Then five. Suddenly, more than 40.

As Iraq's anti-government demonstrations turned bloody, a network of rights defenders and medics began documenting deaths to fill a gag order on casualty numbers.

Remarkably, the watchdog at the heart of the effort is itself a government entity: the Iraqi Human Rights Commission, created in 2012 but now facing its most important -- and politically sensitive -- mission yet.

When protests erupted on October 1, the first casualty report of one protester shot dead and 200 more wounded in the capital was released by the health ministry.

But as more reports came in of live rounds and alleged indiscriminate force used against protesters across Baghdad and the south, the government clammed up.

It released no further tolls, imposed an internet blackout and halted information-sharing with the commission.

"The ministries of health and interior stopped giving us numbers," said Faysal Abdallah, a journalist by training and commission member since 2017.

"So we started going to the morgues to get numbers of dead, the hospitals to learn of the wounded and the police stations for numbers of detainees," he told AFP.

As protests grew, the commission published statements on the rising toll, which would sometimes spike suddenly.

Those jumps, members said, reflected delays caused by the resistance they faced from hospital administrators wary of contravening official orders not to release figures.

During the government's two-week internet blackout, the commission texted updated tolls to reporters and other monitors.

When the internet returned with restrictions on social media, the rights body circumvented the blocks again to publish numbers on Facebook and Telegram, remaining the only named source for a toll.

It pledged to file a lawsuit against the health ministry for "misleading public opinion."