Chaos has hit Baghdad’s Green Zone. After withdrawal “final” of the political life of the Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, violence broke out on Monday, August 29, in this ultra-secure district of the Iraqi capital. Twenty-three supporters of the political and religious leader were shot dead, according to a report released on Tuesday, as clashes resumed in the morning.
These fights are the consequence of a political crisis triggered since the legislative elections in the fall of 2021. Franceinfo takes stock of a critical situation for the country, which is struggling to regain stability.
Months of political deadlock
To understand Baghdad’s swing into violence on Monday, you have to go back nearly eleven months. Iraqis are being called to the polls in early legislative elections on October 10, 2021. With 73 seats, the party of Shiite imam Moqtada al-Sadr, the Sadrist Current, is the leading political party in the Council of Representatives, which however has 329 elected members. Negotiations to form a government failed several times, in February and March 2022.
The election by parliamentarians of a new President of the Republic is also stumbling. The “Coordination Framework”, an alliance of other pro-Iran Shiite parties opposed to Moqtada al-Sadr, is blocking parliamentary sessions. On the other side, the Sadrist Current refuses to share power. The crisis sets in.
The resignation of deputies and the intrusion into Parliament increase tensions
The situation worsened on June 12: eight months after the legislative elections he had won, Moqtada al-Sadr has the 73 deputies he had sent to the Assembly resign. The Shiite leader, as unpredictable as he is influential with his tens of thousands of supporters, thus leaves to his opponents the heavy task of forming a government.
Everything escalates on Wednesday July 27 when Sadrist supporters invade the Iraqi Parliament, in the Green Zone, an ultra-secure perimeter in the heart of Baghdad. They are protesting against the proposal of the alliance of Shiite parties, who want to appoint Mohamed Chia al-Soudani as Prime Minister. And extend their mobilization with a sit-in in Parliament, which begins on Saturday July 30.
A “national dialogue” supplanted by Moqtada al-Sadr’s ultimatum
Opponents of Moqtada al-Sadr demonstrate several times and camp, Friday, August 12, on an avenue in Baghdad. The call for a “national dialogue”, formulated Tuesday, August 16 by Prime Minister Moustafa al-Kazimi, who manages current affairs, does not convince the various political forces. The latter continue their invectives.
Everything accelerated at the end of August, when Moqtada al-Sadr called “all parties” in place to relinquish the government posts they have held so far. The Shiite imam even issues a 72-hour ultimatum to rival parties on Saturday August 27. He still calls for the dissolution of Parliament and new early legislative.
A day of deadly fighting in the heart of Baghdad
Two days later, on Monday, Moqtada al-Sadr announced his “permanent withdrawal” of Iraqi political life. In the aftermath, hundreds of his supporters entered the Palace of the Republic in Baghdad, which hosts the Council of Ministers within the Green Zone. For fear of excesses, the Iraqi army immediately decrees a “full curfew” in all the countries, “from 6 p.m.”.
In response to this intrusion, supporters of the “Coordination Framework” fired live ammunition at the demonstrators in the afternoon. In total, according to the latest report from medical sources cited by AFP, 23 Sadrist demonstrators were killed and more than 200 people were injured in the fighting, which resumed on Tuesday. That same day, Moqtada al-Sadr gave “one o’clock” to his supporters to withdraw from Baghdad, on pain of disavowal.
Clashes spread across the country
After Baghdad, the clashes spread to other Iraqi regions, such as the province of Zi Qar, in the south of the country, where Sadrist supporters invaded the seat of the governorate (the local government) and entered other official buildings in Nasiriyah. The governorate seat of Babylon, in the center of the country, has also been occupied by supporters of nationalist Moqtada al-Sadr.
Several foreign powers have called for calm after these deadly clashes in Baghdad. The White House deemed the situation to be “disturbing” while UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for the “detention”. The French Foreign Ministry also called on Monday evening “the parties to responsibility and to immediately cease the deadly clashes”.