Adel Abdel Mahdi Photo: VCG

Iraq's parliament on Sunday approved the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi's government after two months of protests that have left more than 420 people dead. 

The premier said Friday he would submit his resignation to parliament after a dramatic intervention by the country's Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani following a spree of violence. 

The speaker of parliament said Sunday he would now ask President Barham Salih to name a new prime minister.

Iraqis across the country marched ­Sunday to mourn protesters killed in anti-government rallies, even turning out in Sunni areas where people were previously too afraid to join in.

Demonstrators have hit the streets since early October in Baghdad and the Shiite-majority south to demand the ouster of a government they accuse of being corrupt, inefficient and beholden to foreign powers.

In recent weeks, most Sunni-majority areas refrained from protesting, fearing it would earn them the labels of being "terrorists" or supporters of ex-dictator Saddam Hussein. 

But after a spike in violence days ago left nearly 70 people dead across three cities, Iraqis in nearly all provinces turned out in solidarity.

In Sunday's marches, hundreds of students dressed in black organized a mourning march in the northern city of Mosul, on the city's university campus.

"It's the least Mosul can give to the martyrs of Dhi Qar and Najaf," said Zahraa Ahmed, a dentistry student, naming the two provinces where most recent victims were from. 

For three years, Mosul was the heart of the Islamic State group's ultraconservative "caliphate," and much of it still lies in ruins today.

And eight other Shiite-majority provinces announced Sunday a mourning day during which government offices would remain shut.

More than 20 people were killed in the shrine city of Najaf, 40 people in the hot spot of Nasiriyah and three in the capital Baghdad.

The protest hot spot is the birthplace of Abdel Mahdi, who came to power just a year ago based on a shaky alliance between rival parties.

He had resisted protesters' calls for him to step down over the past two months.