Two parliamentary blocs called on Saturday Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to resign following unrest in the southern Basra city.
The two leading groups in parliament called on Abadi to step down, after lawmakers held an emergency meeting on the public anger boiling over in the southern city of Basra.
The announcement dealt a severe blow to Abadi's hopes of holding onto his post through a bloc -- described as the biggest in parliament -- unveiled just days earlier with Moqtada al-Sadr, the victor in May parliamentary elections.
His alliance with the Shiite cleric has since crumbled as protests against poverty and poor services in Basra turned violent this week.
"We demand the government apologize to the people and resign immediately," said Hassan al-Aqouli, spokesman for Sadr’s list.
Ahmed al-Assadi, spokesman for the second-largest list in parliament, the Conquest Alliance, condemned "the government's failure to resolve the crisis in Basra", where 12 protesters were killed this week in clashes with security forces.
The Conquest Alliance of pro-Iranian former paramilitary fighters was "on the same wavelength" as Sadr's Marching Towards Reform list and they would work together to form a new government, Assadi said.
Abadi, whose grouping came third in the May polls, defended his record in parliament, describing the unrest as "political sabotage" and saying the crisis over public services was being exploited for political ends.
His government has announced the allocation of an unspecified amount of extra funds for Basra, although demonstrators say that billions of dollars in emergency funding pledged in July has failed to materialize.
Basra has been rocked by protests since Tuesday, with angry protesters torching government buildings and offices belonging to the Iranian-backed militias. On Friday night, protesters chanting anti-Iranian slogans including "Iran, out, out!" stormed the Iranian consulate and set it on fire.
They also burned an Iranian flag and trampled on a portrait of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
On Saturday, an Iraqi flag was placed at the entrance to the consulate after the Iranian one was torn down and set ablaze. Sprayed in red on the concrete wall of the consulate were the words: "Down with Iran, down with the militias, the revolution will continue."
The anger flared after the hospitalization of 30,000 people who had drunk polluted water, in an oil-rich region where residents have for weeks complained of water and electricity shortages, corruption among officials and unemployment.
At least a dozen demonstrators have been killed and 50 wounded in clashes with security forces, according to the interior ministry.
Hours before parliament met, four rockets fired by unidentified assailants struck inside the perimeter of Basra airport, security sources said.
Staff at the airport, which is located near the US consulate in Basra, said flights were not affected.
"We're thirsty, we're hungry, we are sick and abandoned," protester Ali Hussein told AFP on Friday in Basra after another night of violence.
The anger on Basra's streets was "in response to the government's intentional policy of neglect", said the head of the region's human rights council, Mehdi al-Tamimi.
Security forces have since deployed in the city. Masked troops in combat fatigues set up checkpoints on Saturday and rode through the city center in black pickup trucks with heavy weapons mounted in the back. Security forces in Humvees deployed at intersections.
Raad Abdelhamid, a Basra firefighter, said he fears for Iraq.
"The militias are responsible for this corruption," he said as he stood outside the still-smoldering provincial government building on Saturday, his second day of working to put out a fire there.
"I fear Basra is headed for more blood," he said, in tears.
A banner on one side of the building read in Arabic: "No to the militias, your militias under our feet."
Iraq has been struggling to rebuild its infrastructure and economy after decades of bloody conflicts, including an eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s, the US-led invasion of 2003 and the battle against the ISIS terrorist group.
In August, the oil ministry announced that crude exports for August had hit their highest monthly figure this year, with nearly 112 million barrels of oil bringing $7.7 billion to state coffers.
Iraq, however, suffers from persistent corruption and many Iraqis complain that the oil wealth is unfairly distributed.
Two months ago, Abadi pledged a multi-billion dollar emergency plan to revive infrastructure and services in southern Iraq, one of the country's most marginalized regions.
