Angry supporters of Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed a government palace yesterday after the powerful Shiite said he was quitting politics, as tensions soared amid a nearly year-long political stalemate.
Shortly after he made his surprise declaration, al-Sadr followers “entered the Republican Palace”, a government building inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone that also houses diplomatic missions, a security source said.
Inside the palace, protesters lounged in armchairs in a meeting room, with others waving Iraqi flags and taking photographs of themselves – while others cooled off in a pool in the garden, an AFP photographer said.
As several thousand other loyalists – many shouting “Muqtada, Muqtada” – headed towards the Green Zone, an AFP journalist reported, the army announced “a full curfew in the capital, Baghdad”.
Since legislative elections in…
