An influential cleric from Iraq called on his supporters Tuesday to leave the Green Zone where they have been engaging in heavy fire with security personnel in an intensifying political crisis that has gripped the nation for months.
Muqtada al-Sadr, in a televised speech gave his supporters one hour to leave. The unrest broke out Monday, when al-Sadr announced he would resign from politics and his supporters stormed the Green Zone, once the stronghold of the U.S. military that’s now home to Iraqi government offices and foreign embassies. Officials said that at least 30 people had been killed.
Iraq’s government has been deadlocked since al-Sadr’s party won the largest share of seats in October parliamentary elections but not enough to secure a majority government _ unleashing months of infighting between different Shiite factions. Al-Sadr refused negotiations with his Iran-backed Shiite counterparts, and his withdrawal Monday pushed Iraq into political uncertainty.
Iran closed its borders to Iraq on Tuesday _ a sign of Tehran’s concern that the chaos could spread, though streets beyond the capital’s government quarter largely remained calm. The country’s vital oil continued to flow, with global benchmark Brent crude trading slightly down.
Al-Sadr supporters could be seen firing rocket-propelled and machine guns into the heavily-fortified area via a section of pulled-down concrete walls, a day after storming the Green Zone. Sporadically, security forces inside the zone with machine guns returned fire.
Some people stood by and recorded the gunfight on their phones. However, most of them hid behind still-standing walls, wincing as rounds sounded nearby. As al-Sadr’s forces fired, a line of armored tanks stood on the other side of the barriers that surround the Green Zone, though they did not use their heavy guns.
At least one wounded man from al-Sadr’s forces was taken away in a three-wheel rickshaw, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry visible in the background. The area was visible from miles away as heavy black smoke rose at one point.
Two Iraqi medical officials stated that at least 30 people were killed and more than 400 were injured. This includes both al-Sadr loyalists who were killed in protests the previous day and clashes overnight. Those figures are expected to rise, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information to journalists.
Members of Iraq’s majority Shiite Muslim population were oppressed when Saddam Hussein ruled the country for decades. The political order was reversed after the 2003 U.S. invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein (a Sunni). A little over two-thirds (23%) of Iraq are Shiite with one third Sunni.
After the Americans withdrew largely from the country, Shiites are now fighting among themselves. Shiites backed by Iran and Iraqi-nationalist Shiites jockey for influence, power and state resources.
It’s an explosive rivalry in a country where many remain way of the Iranian government’s influence even though trade and ties remain strong between its peoples. A bloody war erupted between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s. It saw more than a million deaths.
Al-Sadr’s nationalist rhetoric and reform agenda resonates powerfully with his supporters, who largely hail from Iraq’s poorest sectors of society and were historically shut out of the political system under Saddam.
Al-Sadr’s announcement that he is leaving politics has implicitly given his supporters the freedom to act as they see fit.
Iranian state television mentioned unrest and a military-imposed curfew within Iraqi cities as the reasons for the closures. It advised Iranians not to travel to the neighbouring country. It was just as millions were planning to visit Iraq for a Shiite pilgrimage, and Tehran encouraged any Iranian pilgrims who were already in Iraq to refrain from further travel between cities.
Kuwait, however, called for its citizens to leave Iraq. The state-run KUNA news agency encouraged anyone planning to travel to Iraq to put off their plans.
Kuwait, a tiny Gulf Arab sheikhdom, shares a 254-kilometer (158-mile) border with Iraq.
The Netherlands has evacuated its embassy from the Green Zone, Foreign Affairs Minister WopkeHoekstra tweeted Tuesday morning.
“There are firefights around the embassy in Baghdad. Our staff are now working at the German embassy elsewhere in the city,” Hoekstra wrote.
Dubai’s long-haul carrier Emirates stopped flights to Baghdad on Tuesday over the ongoing unrest. The carrier said that it was “monitoring the situation closely.” It did not say when flights would resume.
On Monday, protesters loyally to al-Sadr ripped down the cement barriers surrounding the government palace with ropes. They also broke through the palace gates. Many ran into the palace’s extravagant salons and marbled halls, which are a key place for foreign dignitaries as well as heads of state in Iraq.
Iraq’s military announced a nationwide curfew, and the caretaker premier suspended Cabinet sessions in response to the violence.
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