Can Moqtada al-Sadr Take Down Iraq’s Government?

Khalid Al Mousily/Reuters

Michael Weiss and Abdulla Hawez, Daily Beast: How Moqtada al-Sadr Could Take Down Iraq’s Government

Supporters of the powerful Shia cleric stormed Baghdad’s parliament, leaving legislators quivering in the basement and Iraq on the edge of political chaos.

BAGHDAD, IRAQ — Hussain Jassim refused to leave the Green Zone, once considered the impenetrable citadel at the heart of Baghdad, until his leader Muqtada al-Sadr ordered him to do so. “We have entered parliament and we have broken it’s prestige in front of people because they are thieves, they deserve for that to happen to them,” Jassim told The Daily Beast.

He was one of thousands of angry protestors who on Saturday raided the Iraqi legislature, chasing MPs out of their own seats in government, and often assaulting or denouncing those not aligned with al-Sadr trying to run away from the melee. “We saw them fleeing from us,” Jassim said.

Some legislators stayed behind, trapped in the basement of the parliament for fear of not wanting to confront the angry crowd outside. There were even false reports that a few had repaired to the sprawling U.S. embassy complex, seeking refuge from their own countrymen.

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WNU Editor: Can Moqtada al-Sadr take down Iraq’s government .... well .... they did this past weekend. But one has to wonder after reading this story on who is pulling his strings .... a day after telling his followers to leave Baghdad's Green Zone, Moktada al-Sadr flies to Iran .... Iraqi Shiite Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr Makes Unannounced Visit to Iran (WSJ).