After a day of clashes that left at least 30 people dead, hundreds injured, and sparked fears of a wider conflict among Iraq’s Shia population, powerful Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered loyalists to return home.
Sadr urged the Iraqi Army to retake control of Baghdad’s green zone, which had seen fierce fighting between Sadrists and pro-Iranian militias. The city’s streets were rapidly emptying shortly after noon, as Iraq’s prime minister praised a cease-fire that many observers believe helped avert a protracted period of violence.
Sadr apologized for the violence, which he blamed on “rude militias” in a press conference. He ordered the end of an Iraqi parliament sit-in by his supporters.
In response, Mustafa al-Kadhimi lifted the nationwide curfew, and residents were seen emerging onto scarred streets in Baghdad’s centre, which had previously been a battleground.
“Peaceful protesters, you have fulfilled and are satisfied with the demands,” Sadr said in a statement. We will not allow you to be attacked; you are the reformers’ defenders. We will not allow new corruption to be led by corrupt individuals.”
During the height of the fighting, militants launched rockets into Baghdad’s fortified green zone, and sporadic gunfights erupted between Shia militias in the Iraqi capital and southern towns and cities.
Iran closed its border and urged its citizens to leave Iraq as fighters roamed the streets of Baghdad, despite efforts by pro-Iranian factions and those loyal to Iraqi cleric Sadr to defuse tensions sparked by Sadr’s decision to step down from politics.
The Iranian decision came as millions of Iranians prepared to travel to Iraq for an annual pilgrimage to Shia shrines. Meanwhile, Kuwait urged its citizens in Iraq to leave the country and urged those planning to visit Iraq to postpone their plans.
Long the most secure pocket of Iraq, the green zone, which houses the national parliament and diplomatic missions, was the site of running battles between Shia factions who had grown increasingly enmasse amid intractable efforts to form a government.
The Iraqi army, for the most part, sat out the fighting, unwilling to intervene in a power struggle between the country’s most powerful factions. However, a counter-terrorism force was seen preventing the entry of a unit from the Popular Mobilisation Unit, an ancillary force formed during the fight against the Islamic State that has maintained a significant presence since the war’s end.
Iraqi troops had also safeguarded diplomatic areas inside the green zone and entrances to key government institutions.
Protesters loyal to Sadr had earlier pulled down barriers outside the government palace with ropes and breached the palace gates. Many rushed into the lavish salons and marbled halls of the palace, a key meeting place for Iraqi heads of state and foreign dignitaries.
Open conflict between Shia groups in Iraq had been feared in recent months as a standoff intensified between militia proxies and political blocs linked to Tehran and the Sadrist bloc, loyal to Sadr, which performed strongly in elections held 10 months ago at the expense of its rival.
Since then, the pro-Tehran factions had been trying to claw back electoral losses, while Sadr had tried unsuccessfully to transform his poll gains into political power.
Sadr’s withdrawal came after the resignation of his spiritual mentor, Ayatollah Kadhim al-Haeri, who in a surprise statement urged him to follow Iran and challenged his legitimacy to lead the Sadrist movement.
The 48-year-old cleric has threatened to quit on seven occasions over the past 20 years. However, this time he has also forced his MPs to quit their seats and claimed to want to break down Iraq’s political system, which apportions political power along sectarian lines.
Baghdad’s streets remained largely deserted on Tuesday morning, witnesses said. “There is a lot of gunfire in and near the green zone,” said Saud Mansour, a resident of the west of the city. “We have seen the Sadrist trucks in our area, but they are not stopping. They’re heading to the parliament area.”
Images of militia gun trucks roaming the country’s streets have invoked images of the height of the country’s civil war, during which neither the national military nor the occupying US army was able to contain years of brutal sectarian violence, in which Sadr’s Jaysh al-Mahdi was the main protagonist.
“They have nationalist credentials now, or so they say,” said Ahmad Kurdi, 36, a retailer from east Baghdad. “But if this fight continues to develop, it becomes something bigger than they can control.
“And do the Iranians really think they can defeat the Sadrists? If they do, they’re making a mistake that everyone will pay for.” (Guardian UK)
