Iraqi protesters set fire to Iran's Najaf consulate: AFP

Protesters set fire Wednesday night to Iran's consulate in the southern Iraqi Shiite holy city of Najaf, two months into the country's most serious social crisis in decades, AFP journalists said.

Since October 1, protesters in Iraq -- a majority Shiite country, like its neighbour Iran -- have been calling for the fall of a central government they see as both irretrievably corrupt and beholden to Tehran.