Al-Sadr Supporters Clash With Security Forces, Target Iran-Linked Parties
Violence seized Baghdad once again, leaving more than twenty dead. Over the past night, the Green Zone has become a battlefield in which the followers of the Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr clash with the security forces.
The Iraqis are once again on the brink of the abyss and after overcoming the conflict with the United States, the sectarian clash between Sunnis and Shiites, the war against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, they are now facing a direct duel between the armed Shiite factions a true civil war.
The violence broke out when Al-Sadr made public his decision to leave politics. It is not the first time that the influential religious has made this same announcement, but the effect that he has had among his people has been seismic. Within minutes, hundreds of armed supporters headed to the Green Zone and began storming public buildings.
It should not be forgotten that Al-Sadr had the Mahdi Army during the US occupation and now has the Peace Brigades, one of the main militias in the country whose role was key in the fight against IS.
political blockade
Al-Sadr’s announcement comes almost a year after the elections won by the bloc he leads. Iraqis went to the polls in October, but since then the political formations have been unable to reach agreements to form a government.
Al-Sadr’s party, a figure that combines his political leadership with his spiritual one, obtained 73 seats, but has not managed to add support to gain the necessary majority in a chamber with 329 representatives. Faced with the impossibility of governing, he decided to withdraw his deputies from the Chamber before the summer, a movement that left the coalition called ‘Coordination Framework’ as the main force.
Political Shiism is divided. Al-Sadr stands as the standard-bearer of Iraqi nationalism, while the rest of the ‘Framework of Coordination’ parties have a direct connection with Iran and also have their respective armed forces, which threatens a clash between militias in the current scenery. At the end of July, Al-Sadr’s followers occupied Parliament, but in those days there were no clashes with the security forces.
Iran has closed its borders with Iraq and different airlines in the region have cut their connections with Baghdad. In each of his public interventions, Al-Sadr’s spokesman does not miss the opportunity to accuse his detractors of “lack of patriotism” due to his direct link with Tehran.
#Iraq #civil #war #main #Shiite #militias