Several hundred supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr launched a sit-in outside Iraq’s top judicial body on Tuesday, ratcheting up tensions in a showdown with a rival Shiite alliance.
The Sadrists, who have already been camping outside parliament for the past three weeks, pitched tents outside the gates of the body’s Baghdad headquarters, Iraq’s official INA news agency reported.
They carried placards demanding the dissolution of parliament and new elections 10 months after an inconclusive poll failed to deliver a majority government, images released by his bloc showed.
On August 10, Sadr gave the Supreme Judicial Council one week to dissolve parliament.
Sadr’s opponents in the Coordination Framework, who have been holding a sit-in of their own just outside the Green Zone government and diplomatic compound where parliament is located, want a transitional government before new polls are held.
They include former paramilitaries of the Hashed Al-Shaabi network, and the party of former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, a longtime Sadr foe.
Last week, caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhemi convened crisis talks with party leaders, but they were boycotted by the Sadrists.
Source: Agencies
