Oct. 7 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The prominent Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered the armed groups under his control to suspend their activities in practically the entire country so as not to increase tension after weeks of heavy clashes in the province of Basra between the religious forces and the Armed Forces. of Popular Mobilization (FMP), a coalition of pro-Iranian militias.
A statement released by the cleric’s unofficial spokesman, Salí Mohamed al Iraqi, specifically condemns the League of the Just (Asaib Ahl al Haq or AAH) militia, part of the Popular Mobilization Forces, for the riots.
“They do not know the slightest respect. They only know about terrorism, money and power,” Al Iraqi denounced in a statement collected by the Kurdish news agency Rudaw, where he points out that Al Sadr’s order also aims to prevent his militias from be charged with “sedition”.
Among the militias affected by Al Sadr’s order is the most prominent of all, the Companies for Peace (Saraya al Salam), founded by a cleric himself in 2014 and considered a renewed version of the Mahdi Army, the armed force to the orders of the cleric who led some of the heaviest fighting in the Iraq war in 2003 against the US forces that invaded the country.
Iraq has been the scene of new mobilizations in recent days, coinciding with the third anniversary of the October 2019 protests, which resulted in at least 600 deaths throughout the country due to the reaction of the Iraqi Police and pro-Iranian militias. The protests were active for several months to demand an end to the system of government in place since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, an end to corruption, better basic services and employment.
The protests led to the resignation of the then prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, who was replaced –after the rejection of several nominees– by Mostafá al Kazemi, who initiated a series of reforms and called early elections, held on October 10, 2021.
