Iraq once again peeked into civil conflict, between Monday and Tuesday, with the area around the Green Zone in Baghdad turned into a war zone. But with the same speed, in a show of force, Moqtada al Sadr dispelled in an hour the chaos that he himself had caused.
The Shiite political leader and cleric called his own to order, not only urging them to lay down their arms “in sixty minutes” – which they did – but also disbanding their protest camp, which a month earlier had occupied the heart of power Iraqi.
If then his supporters were installed in front of the impotent Parliament, on Monday they stormed, for a few hours, the seats of government and the presidency. In a clash with the core of Iraqi power – equally Shiite, but more inclined to Tehran – that leaves more than 500 wounded and 35 dead. The vast majority due to gunshot wounds, among his own followers.
The exchange of fire included grenade launchers, mortars and up to four missiles. An orgy of violence unleashed by the sudden “withdrawal from politics” of Moqtada al Sadr, after colliding with the impossibility of forming a government – ??already in June he withdrew his deputies – despite having been the most voted party in the elections last November .
Al Sadr’s decision was spurred on by the disavowal, that same morning, coming from Ayatollah Kazem al Haeri, successor to Al Sadr’s father and father in the Iraqi religious hierarchy, but based in the holy Iranian city of Qom.
In line with the Iranian theocracy, Al Haeri sees in the unpredictable Al Sadr a threat to the unity of the Iraqis and, first of all, of the Shiites. Al Haeri, when announcing his withdrawal “for health reasons,” expressly called on his followers – the majority of Sadarists – to look for an example “in Qom and not in Najaf”, where Moqtada al Sadr resides, whose legal training and religious is very primary.
The impulsive Al Sadr reacted by announcing – for the fourth time – his withdrawal from politics. Immediately afterwards, blood flowed again in Baghdad, in the pitched battle between its militia, armed to the teeth, and the Iraqi Security Forces, which also include the Shia militias close to Iran, as a reward for their decisive contribution in the defeat of Islamic State. The latter would have shot down the attempt by Sadarist militiamen to approach the home of former Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki, their sworn enemy.
On Monday night, with Baghdad under curfew, a suddenly Gandhian Al Sadr declared himself on a hunger strike to end the violence. But it would be his forceful press conference yesterday – before lunchtime – that would defuse the clashes. “The revolution has lost its peaceful character,” he said, admonishing his supporters, often from Baghdad’s poorest neighborhoods, such as Sadr City (after his father), formerly called Saddam City. “Corruption is not fought like this.”
Acting Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi thanked him for “patriotism” for preventing the shedding of “Iraqi blood” and vaguely admitted the need for “dialogue.” Sadr has unsuccessfully insisted on calling new elections.
Tradition wants the president of Iraq to be a Kurd, the speaker of the House a Sunni and the prime minister a Shia, like 60% of Iraqis. They are all in office, thanks to Al Sadr’s failure to weave a majority from his own forces, coupled with those of a Kurdish and a Sunni Arab party.
According to Efe, the protesters of the Coordination Framework, the rival alliance led by pro-Iranian Shiite groups, had also begun to break up the camp they had maintained since the beginning of the month in one of the accesses to the green zone.
It should be noted that Al Sadr’s supporters extended the violence to government buildings in the southern provinces, even taking the port of Basra. Iran, which had canceled flights to Iraq and closed its border, reopened it after Al Sadr’s speech.
