The protest of violence broke out in the capital city of Iraq in Baghdad after Iraqi Shia Ulama Muqtada al-Sadr announced that he stopped politics on Monday. In what seemed like the Sri Lanka crisis, the protesters in Baghdad entered the green zone and invaded the Republican palace, the center of the state’s power. Photos and videos are circulated online that show a cooling demonstrators in the swimming pool, similar to the viral picture of Kolombo in Sri Lanka when an angry demonstrators took over the palace of President Goatabaya Rajapaksa in agitation against the political and economic crisis.
At least 15 protesters were reported dead in protests in Iraq so far. Al-Sadr followers took to the streets in Baghdad at night, a few hours after the news about Shi’a spiritual leaders who announced that he resigned. Saraya Salam, a militia who is in harmony with Al-Sadr, is at odds with the security group of popular mobilization forces. More military assistance was sent to the Presidential Palace as a follower of Muqtada al-Sadr tore cement obstacles outside the government building and forced the palace and utilized all the luxury available, including swimming pools.
مثلما حصل في سريلانكا
انصار التيار الصدري يسبحون في مسبح القصر الجمهوري pic.twitter.com/5zHPq636nF
— شاهو القرةداغي (@shahokurdy) August 29, 2022
Pictures of thousands of Iraqi protesters who entered the country's presidential palace.
Like what happened in Sri Lanka, they are swimming where the president used to swim. These angry people support the leader of the main opposition in the country, Muqtada al-Sadr. pic.twitter.com/eLNcm10Alr
— Mohamed Hussein Omar (@MahamedHuseenO2) August 29, 2022
Small troops from the 9th Division of the Special Forces and Division of the Iraqi Army also joined the operation to withstand the situation around the Presidential Palace. Security forces dropped tear gas bombs and grenade stun to withstand protests in the green zone, according to local reports.
Crackle of Machine Gun Fire echoed throughout the city center area, while SADR supporters and Tehran-supported units were reported to also throw stones with each other. The curfew was immediately applied right after the palace security could not control the demonstrators.
According to Russia Today’s report, Al-Sadr’s decision to get out of politics came in a reaction to the retirement of Shi’a’s spiritual leaders Ayatollah Kadhim al-Haeri, who considered many supporters of al-Sadr as followers
Al-Haeri resigned as religious authority for health reasons, reports, and asked his followers to throw their loyalty behind Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Iran, rather than the spiritual center of Shia in the Holy City of Najaf Iraq.
The latest protest rounds occurred only a month after the Iraqi demonstrators-most of the supporters of the Shi’a Al-Sadr-Menggu leader of the Parliament Building which were highly fortified in Baghdad in July to protest the nomination of the Prime Minister by the rival supported by Iran.
The protesters opposed the nomination of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani for the position of Prime Minister, which they believed to be too close in relations with Iran.
Talks to form a new government have been jammed in Iraq since last year even when the Al-Sadr Block won the parliamentary election. A similar trend was also seen in 2016 when his supporters were sitting and looking for political reforms. The deadlock continues to survive during the formation of a new government.
