Iraq protesters begin withdrawal after cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr demands deadly clashes end
- Influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr announced on Monday that he would resign from Iraqi politics
- It prompted followers to storm the government palace and sparked clashes with rival groups
Iraqi supporters of powerful cleric Moqtada Sadr began withdrawing on Tuesday from Baghdad’s Green Zone after he demanded fighting end between rival Shiite forces and the army that left 23 dead and hundreds wounded.
The violence that erupted on Monday pitched Sadr loyalists against Shiite factions backed by neighbouring Iran, with the sides exchanging gunfire across barricades – violence the United Nations warned risked tipping the war-ravaged country deeper into chaos.
Moments after Sadr’s speech was broadcast live on television, his supporters were seen beginning to leave the Green Zone, and minutes after that, the army lifted a nationwide curfew.
Sadr, a grey-bearded preacher with millions of devoted followers who once led a militia against American and Iraqi government forces after the 2003 US-led overthrow of dictator Saddam Hussein, gave followers “60 minutes” to withdraw after which he would threatened to “disavow” those who remained.
“I apologise to the Iraqi people, the only ones affected by the events,” Sadr told reporters from his base in the central Iraqi city of Najaf.