Eight supporters of Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr were killed and 85 others wounded Monday after clashes broke out in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, medics told AFP.
The announcement raises an earlier toll of two Sadr supporters killed and 22 others wounded in the clashes with supporters of a rival faction. The army announced a nationwide curfew from 7:00 pm (1600 GMT).
Shots were fired in the fortified area which houses government buildings as well as diplomatic missions, an AFP correspondent said, as tensions soared amid an escalating political crisis that has left Iraq without a new government, prime minister or president for months.
Witnesses said Sadr loyalists and supporters of a rival Shiite bloc, the pro-Iran Coordination Framework, were exchanging fire.
Security forces also fired tear gas to disperse the Sadrists at the entrance to the Green Zone, a security source told AFP.
Calling the developments “an extremely dangerous escalation”, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) urged “protesters to immediately leave” the area.
It urged “all” to “refrain from acts that could lead to an unstoppable chain of events”.
“The very survival of the state is at stake,” it said.
‘Definitive retirement’
Iraq has been mired in political deadlock since legislative elections in October last year, due to disagreement between Shiite factions over forming a coalition.
Shortly after he made his surprise declaration, Sadr’s followers entered the Republican Palace, where cabinet meetings are usually held.
Inside the opulent palace, protesters lounged in armchairs in a meeting room, as some waved Iraqi flags and took photographs of themselves, while others cooled off in a swimming pool in the garden, an AFP photographer said.
Sadr — a grey-bearded preacher with millions of devoted followers, who once led a militia against American and Iraqi government forces — announced earlier on Monday…
Source : france24
