With the death toll rising in Basra, southern Iraq To 4, following the armed clashes that took place in the city during the past hours, between the Al-Salam Brigades of the Sadrist movement and the Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq militia led by Qais Al-Khazali, the latter asked his supporters today, Thursday, to close all Asaib’s offices until further notice.
“Someone is stalking us”
In a tweet on his Twitter account, he also asked his gunmen and members not to respond to any abuse or burning of offices, considering that “there are those who are stalking his group and want to aggravate matters.”
This brief statement came following warning The leader of the Sadrist movement, Saleh Muhammad al-IraqiKhazali, who is known as “Minister of Al-Sadr”, suffers dire consequences, asking him to “rein in his impudent militias”, or to disavow criminals, in reference to the shooters of one of the Saraya al-Salam members.
During the past hours, Basra witnessed armed clashes that killed 4 people, local security officials confirmed to Archyde.com, before cautious calm returned to the center of the southern province.
Meanwhile, Asa’ib militia announced the killing of 2 of its members.
“Retirement of the chest” and the outbreak of chaos
It is noteworthy that the Iraqi capital lived a few days ago (on August 29, 2022) violent clashes that killed 30 people and injured regarding 600 during the confrontations that erupted last Monday and lasted for nearly 24 hours in the heavily fortified Green Zone, which includes government headquarters and diplomatic missions, between Sadr’s supporters. on the one hand, and elements of the popular crowd on the other.
Those clashes took place following tens of thousands of Sadrist’s supporters took to the streets to express their anger following he announced his “final withdrawal” from political life.
Sadr’s supporters in the Green Zone in Baghdad – Archyde.com
While many southern governorates sympathized with these demonstrations, especially Basra.
This tension came months following the holding of parliamentary elections on the tenth of last October 2021, in which Al-Sadr won the largest share in Parliament, without being able to form a government or elect a new president of the country, due to the lack of a quorum, and the adherence to the “coordinating framework” Al-Sadr’s arch-rival, who It includes Nouri al-Maliki and the Fatah Alliance and other parties loyal to Iran, to form the government.
