Baghdad - Tension between Iraq's Shi'a leaders mounted on Sunday as the toll from protests in central
Baghdad on Saturday increased to six killed, five demonstrators
loyal to the fiery cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and one policeman.
At least 174 other protesters were injured in clashes that
pitted police and Sadr's followers who had gathered to demand an
overhaul of a commission that supervises elections, ahead of a
provincial poll due in September.
The clashes broke out as the protesters attempted to cross
the bridge that links Tahrir Square where they had gathered and
the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses government
buildings, embassies and international organizations.
In a statement reacting to the killing of his followers on
Saturday evening, Sadr said: "Their blood won't have been shed
in vain." He promised strong retaliation.
Several Katyusha rockets hit the Green Zone on Saturday
evening but there were no casualties, a military spokesperson said.
The rockets seem to have been fired from Baladiyat, a district
where Sadr has many followers.
The growing tensions come at a bad time for Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi who is trying to focus on a critical battle with
Islamic State in Mosul, the last major urban stronghold of the
Sunni militant in northern Iraq.
Four of the five protesters killed were hit by bullets and
the fifth died of unknown causes, according to an updated
casualties toll given by an Interior Ministry official. Most of
the injured were treated for choking on tear gas, he said.
Sadr says the electoral commission is favourable to his
Shi'ite rival, former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, a
politician close to Iran whom he accuses of corruption.
He also blames Maliki for the failure of the Iraqi army to
contain the advance of Islamic State in 2014, as he was then
prime minister and commander of the armed forces.
The cleric said his supporters wanted to get near the Green
Zone to make their voices heard by decision-makers, and had no
intention of storming it again.
Abadi ordered an investigation into the violence amid claims
by the Interior Ministry that some demonstrators carried
firearms and knives. Sadr insists his followers were peaceful.
In a statement, Maliki's Dawa party accused Sadr without
naming him of trying to "distract the Iraqi people in sedition
in order to prevent the efforts to get rid of Daesh," an acronym
for Islamic State.
Sadr is openly hostile to American policies in the Middle
East and, at the same time, he has a troubled relationship with
Iraqi political groups allied with Iran.
Sadr is the heir of a clerical family who suffered under
Saddam Hussein, the former president toppled in the 2003
US-led invasion. His Shi'ite rivals had fled Saddam's
persecution, returning to Iraq after the invasion.
His followers held several demonstrations last year to press
for anti-corruption reforms and stormed the Green Zone after
violent clashes with security forces.
Iraqi forces last month completed the first phase of the
Mosul offensive that started in October, by removing the
militants from the eastern side of the city. They are now
preparing to attack the part that lies west of the Tigris river.