BAGHDAD: Heavy clashes erupted in Baghdad, killing at least 10 people on Monday (Aug 29), after powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said he would quit politics, prompting his loyalists to storm a government palace and fight with rival groups. As night fell, machine-gun fire and explosions rang out, wit
BAGHDAD: Heavy clashes erupted in Baghdad, killing at least 10 people on Monday , after powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said he would quit politics, prompting his loyalists to storm a government palace and fight with rival groups.
Since 2003, Iraqi groups have engaged in sectarian conflict and, more recently, intra-sectarian, intra-ethnic political competition. Security officials said some of the clashes were between Sadr's Peace Brigades fighters and members of the Iraqi security forces tasked with protecting the Green Zone, but that Iran-aligned militias were also likely to have been involved.Sadr announced earlier in the day he was quitting politics."I hereby announce my final withdrawal," he said on Twitter, criticising fellow Shi'ite political leaders for failing to heed his calls for reform.
Sadr, who has drawn broad support by opposing both US and Iranian influence on Iraqi politics, was the biggest winner from an October election but withdrew all his lawmakers from parliament in June after he failed to form a government that excluded his rivals, mostly Tehran-backed Shi'ite parties. Sadr has withdrawn from politics and the government in the past and has also disbanded militias loyal to him. But he retains widespread influence over state institutions and controls a paramilitary group with thousands of members.
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