Al-Sadr supporters clash with security forces, target Iran-affiliated parties
Violence gripped Baghdad again, killing more than 20. The Green Zone has become a battleground last night where supporters of Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr clash with security forces.
The Iraqis are again on the brink of collapse and after overcoming the conflict with the United States, the sectarian clash between Sunnis and Shiites, the war against the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), they now face a direct duel between the armed Shia factions a real civil war.
Violence erupted when Al-Sadr made public his decision to leave politics. It’s not the first time the influential religious has made the same announcement, but the effect it has had on his people has been seismic. Within minutes, hundreds of armed supporters marched into the Green Zone and began storming public buildings.
We must not forget 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 played a key role in the fight against IS.
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 political formations have been unable to agree on forming a government.
Al-Sadr’s party, a figure who combines his political leadership with his spiritual, won 73 seats, but failed to add support to secure the necessary majority in a chamber of 329 representatives. Faced with the impossibility of governing, he decided to withdraw his deputies from the Chamber before the summer, a move that left the coalition dubbed “Coordinating Framework” as the main force.
Political Shiism is divided. Al-Sadr is the standard-bearer of Iraqi nationalism, while the rest of the ‘Coordination Framework’ parties have direct ties to Iran and their respective armed forces, threatening a clash between militias in the current landscape. At the end of July, Al-Sadr’s followers occupied the parliament, but during that time there were no clashes with the security forces.
Iran has closed its borders with Iraq and several airlines in the region have cut connections to Baghdad. In each of his public interventions, Al-Sadr’s spokesman does not pass up the opportunity to accuse his opponents of “lack of patriotism” because of his direct ties to Tehran.
Source: La Verdad
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