Baghdad: Chaos erupted in Iraq’s capital Baghdad soon after Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced his quitting politics on Monday with thousands of his followers storming Iraq’s presidential palace resulting in the death of two persons.
According to Russia Today, 19 people were injured during the clashes between al-Sadr supporters and security forces in Baghdad’s Green Zone, and several of them were hit by tear gas and stun grenades as they stormed the government palace in Baghdad.
The Shi’ite cleric announced his resignation from politics on Monday following which the Military reinforcements were sent to the presidential palace as the followers of Al Sadr tore down cement barriers outside the government building in support of the cleric.
An immediate curfew was put in place right after as Palace security was unable to control the mass of demonstrators.
As per Russia Today, Al-Sadr’s announcement came in reaction to the retirement of Shia spiritual leader Ayatollah Kadhim al-Haeri, who counts many of al-Sadr’s supporters as followers.
Al-Haeri announced he would be stepping down as a religious authority for health reasons and called on his followers to throw their allegiance behind Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rather than the Shia spiritual center in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf, media reported.
Earlier in July, numerous Iraqi demonstrators, mostly supporters of Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr stormed the heavily fortified parliament building in Baghdad to protest against the nomination for prime minister by rival Iran-backed parties. The protesters were opposing the candidacy of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani for the post of Prime Minister, as they believed him to be too close to Iran.
Notably, Al-Sadr’s bloc won 73 seats in Iraq’s October 2021 election, making it the largest faction in the 329-seat parliament but, ever since the vote, talks to form a new government have stalled, and Al-Sadr stepped down from the political process. A deadlock persists over the establishment of a new government.
In 2016 too Al-Sadr’s supporters stormed the parliament in a similar fashion. They staged a sit-in and issued demands for political reform after then-Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi sought to replace party-affiliated ministers with technocrats in an anti-corruption drive.
Mass protests erupted in 2019 amid public anger over corruption and unemployment and this current protest poses a challenge for the oil-rich country.