At least 23 supporters of the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr were killed and more than 380 injured on August 30, after clashes between protesters and Iraq’s military continued for the second consecutive day in Baghdad.
Key facts
- An Iraqi Shia scholar, militia leader and the founder of the most powerful political faction in the country right now, Muqtada al-Sadr rose to prominence after the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein government.
- The Sadrist and the affiliated militia (Mahdi army) started a resistance against the US troops following the country’s invasion in 2003.
- These militias under al-Sadr are now called the “peace companies”.
- The Sadrist movement, which is at its strongest right now in Iraq, was founded by al-Sadr.
- A nationalist movement by origin, the Sadrist draws support from the poor people of the Shiite community across the country.
- A spokesman for the Sadrist movement had called on for the establishment of a new Iraq, devoid of militias, illegal possession of weapons, violence, fighting, sectarianism and warring parties.
- Iraq’s powerful Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr has announced he is quitting political life and closing his political offices in a move that inflamed tensions and prompted protests by his supporters.
