The influential cleric said he was asking them to leave out of “respect” for a Shiite pilgrimage underway, but vowed they would be back on Friday if their demands weren’t met. Al-Sadr has demanded that Parliament meet to approve a capable new cabinet soon or else he will call for the dissolution of the government and early elections.
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Majid Gharawi, an MP from the Ahrar parliamentary list-Sadr’s bloc-justified the protests as a normal and healthy reaction to legislative deadlock after three attempts of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to form a technocratic cabinet were rebuffed by a parliament which internally devolved into the kind of chaos that descended upon the institution from without this weekend, with MPs getting into fist fights and waging their own sit-ins over the past several weeks.
The attacks were the latest in a series of Islamic State-claimed bombings in Iraq.
Videos on social media had showed a group of young men surrounding and slapping two Iraqi lawmakers as they attempted to flee the crowd, while other protesters mobbed lawmakers’ motorcades.
Baghdad remains the worst-hit area, with 232 civilians killed and 642 wounded in April, followed by the northern province of Nineveh, which is nearly entirely controlled by the Islamic State, with 72 killed and 30 wounded.
On Sunday, two suicide attackers from the Islamic State group detonated auto bombs in the city of Samawa, some 230 kilometres (145 miles) south of Baghdad.
Speaking to Al Arabiya News Channel from Iraq, Awad Al-Awadi, a deputy in the Iraqi parliament representing the Al-Ahrar bloc of the Sadrist Movement, said that a pending solution “depends on the political blocs first”.
Abadi has warned continued turmoil could hamper the war against Islamic State, which controls vast swathes of northern and western Iraq.
The Green Zone breach allowed Iraqis access to places they have rarely if ever been able to enter before. Iraq’s Council of Representatives (CoR), Iraq’s parliament, has been embroiled in internal power struggles for the past month while al-Abadi has attempted to reconcile the government.
The bombings occurred in central Al-Samawah city, where two parked cars detonated within minutes of each other.
Sadr resurfaced in February to lead protests supporting measures by Abadi to reduce government waste, tackle corruption and end sectarian quotas.
For the month of April, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq documented at least 741 Iraqis were killed and 1,374 were injured in acts of terrorism, violence or armed conflict.
Sadr wants Prime Minister Abadi to commit to a plan to replace ministers with non-partisan technocrats.
The demonstrators took over parliament after breaking through the blast barriers which surround the Green Zone, toppling sections of the wall. “Moqtada al-Sadr ordered a peaceful demonstration, but if they attack us we will defend ourselves”. Over the coming days, thousands of Shiite pilgrims are expected to travel on foot to a shrine commemorating the anniversary of his death.
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The International Zone is home to the most important Iraqi government ministries, offices of international organizations, aid agencies and embassies, including that of the U.S. The protesters eventually left the parliament Saturday night and rallied at a nearby square.
