DEleven people were shot dead in the Green Zone of Baghdad in the midst of chaos after a new outburst by Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr, who announced his “final withdrawal” from politics in Iraq, now under curfew. Iraq, in a political stalemate since the October 2021 legislative elections, continues to sink into crisis. Monday, August 29, the situation has brutally degenerated in the capital and hundreds of supporters of Moqtada Sadr invaded the Palace of the Republic where the Council of Ministers sits, noted journalists from Agence France Presse.
While the sadrists took over the offices, settling into armchairs, jumping into the swimming pool or taking selfies, the security forces tried to disperse other demonstrators with tear gas canisters at the entrances to the Green Zone, which houses the headquarters of the institutions and the American embassy, a security source told AFP. Twelve supporters of Moqtada Sadr were shot dead and 270 others injured, medical sources told AFP, without further details on the circumstances. Some injured were shot, others inhaled tear gas. According to a security source, shells were also fired towards the “Green Zone”.
Witnesses told AFP of exchanges of fire between Sadrists and supporters of the Coordination Framework, a pro-Iran rival of the Moqtada Sadr camp, at the entrances to the Green Zone. The army decreed a national curfew which came into effect at 4:00 p.m. GMT, and the forces of order crisscrossed the capital. The White House deemed the situation “worrying” and called for calm and dialogue. The UN mission in Iraq, whose headquarters are in the Green Zone, called on all parties to “maximum restraint”.
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Chaos in several regions
In the evening the curfew seemed respected in Baghdad. The usually bustling streets were empty of any cars or passers-by. But the chaos spread to other Iraqi regions: in the province of Zi Qar (south), Sadrists invaded the seat of the governorate and entered other official buildings in Nassiriyah, according to an AFP journalist. The seat of the governorate of Babylon (center), in the city of Hilla, was also occupied by supporters of Moqtada Sadr, witnesses told AFP. Several roads linking Hilla to Baghdad and other southern provinces have also been cut.
For nearly a year, the political barons have been unable to agree on the name of a new prime minister. Iraq therefore has neither a new government nor a new president since the legislative elections. To get out of the crisis, Moqtada Sadr and the Coordination Framework agree on one point: a new early election is needed. But if Moqtada Sadr insists on dissolving parliament first, his rivals want to appoint a government first.
In the evening, the Coordination Framework condemned the “attack on state institutions”, while calling on the Sadrists for “dialogue”. Moqtada Sadr, as influential as he is unpredictable, has been upping the ante in recent weeks. For the past month, his supporters have camped near Parliament and even briefly blocked access to the country’s highest judicial body.
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A “definitive” withdrawal, really?
On Monday, in a new twist, he announced his “final withdrawal” from politics and the closure of institutions linked to his family. The Shiite leader is very influential, his religious and political aura affects part of the Shiite community, the majority in Iraq. Arrived first in the legislative elections with 73 seats (out of 329) but, unable to form a majority, he had his deputies resign in June, claiming to want to “reform” the system from top to bottom and put an end to “corruption”.
For Hamzeh Hadad, guest researcher at the European Council for International Relations (ECFR), his announcement of withdrawal from politics “is not very clear”. “In the Sadrist tradition, we can expect him to back down,” he told AFP. But, “and this is more terrifying, one might think he is giving his followers the green light to do whatever they want, saying he is no longer answerable for their actions.”
On Saturday, Moqtada Sadr had given “72 hours” to “all parties” in place since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 – including his own – to give up the government posts they hold and leave “room for reforms”. So far, the spat between the Sadrists and the Coordination Framework had not degenerated into violence. The Hashd al-Chaabi, former paramilitaries allied with Tehran and integrated into the Iraqi forces, however said they were ready to “defend state institutions”. Moqtada Sadr, born in 1974, has never governed himself. It experienced a meteoric rise after the invasion of Iraq, led by the United States in 2003, in particular by creating the Mehdi Army, a “resistant” militia against the occupier.