Thousands of Sadrists stormed the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, and entered the parliament hall, for the second time within days.
The “Sky News Arabia” correspondent in Baghdad reported that intermittent confrontations took place between the demonstrators and the force charged with protecting the Green Zone, pointing out that the sounds of tear gas canisters were heard whenever the demonstrators tried to reach the area.
Since the morning hours, thousands of al-Sadr’s supporters gathered at the Jumhuriya Bridge leading to the Green Zone, where they removed the concrete barriers on the bridge, and the security forces repeatedly tried to prevent them from reaching the Green Zone, to no avail.
Our correspondent reported that the demonstrators are trying to storm the Supreme Judicial Council in the fortified area.
Sadr’s supporters are demanding that Muhammad Shiaa al-Sudani not be nominated for the position of prime minister, but today demands have risen to bring down the entire political class in Iraq, as our correspondent reported.
Iraq has been experiencing a political crisis since the parliamentary elections in October last year. After the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, failed to form a government, he ordered his 73 deputies to resign and were replaced by candidates from the coordination framework that includes anti-Sadr political forces close to Iran.
The coordination framework took advantage of this absence to form a new government in Iraq, which al-Sadr rejected, and his supporters protested against the decision of the coordination framework.
On Saturday, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, directed the security forces to protect the demonstrators, at a time when intermittent confrontations erupted between the demonstrators and the security forces, which resulted in 60 injuries.
Al-Kazemi stressed that “the continuation of the political escalation increases tension in the street and does not serve the public interests,” stressing that “the security forces have a duty to protect official institutions and the need to take all legal measures to maintain order.”
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