‘We obey’: Iraq’s Sadr loyalists express diehard support

Najaf, Iraq (AFP):

In a sunbaked cemetery in the central Iraqi city of Najaf, fresh are the graves of loyalists to Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr who were killed in clashes in Baghdad last week. 

So too is seething anger following the face-off between the cleric’s supporters, rival Iran-backed factions and the army that left more than 30 Sadrists dead and 570 others wounded.

Standing between tombstones, Moussa Abbas said the fight was far from over.

“Blood was spilt, but there is plenty more where that came from,” the 21-year-old Sadr loyalist tells AFP. “For every martyr we lose, there are 10 that will come in his place.

“The same way they sacrificed themselves for us, we will stand up for them.”

Nearly 24 hours of fighting erupted on August 29 when Sadr supporters stormed the government headquarters in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone after their leader said he would resign from politics.

The ensuing battles — the deadliest in nearly three years — followed months of disagreements between Sadr and rival Shiite factions, as the political deadlock has left the country without a new government, prime minister or president since elections in October last year.

Sadr supporters say they were willing to give their lives for their leader.

“I am ready to the be the first of the martyrs,” says Taleb Saad, 60.

“My wish is to be buried here,” he says, pointing at graves adorned with plastic flowers and large portraits of young men.

‘Under his command’  

Sadr gained widespread popularity following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, when he ran the feared Mahdi Army militia that fought against American and Iraqi government forces.

He has now reinvented himself as a champion of reform in a country blighted by endemic corruption — though opponents accuse Sadrist officials of being as unscrupulous as other political forces.

Sadr’s rise was aided by the reputation of his father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadek Sadr, whom former dictator Saddam Hussein had assassinated in 1999.

The grey-bearded cleric retains a devoted following of millions among the country’s majority Shiite population.

As fighting raged in the Green Zone, all it took was one stern statement from Sadr for his loyalists to begin streaming out of the area.

“We obey the orders of our leader and commander — whatever he wants, we are ready,” says Sadeq Jaber, mourning a 16-year-old from his tribe who was shot dead last week. The boy’s given name was Moqtada Sadr.

“All of us, with our children, houses and families — we are all under his command,” Jaber says.

Nearby, women clad in black wail at graves so recent they bear temporary paper tombstones, as cemetery workers make space for corpses arriving almost daily from Baghdad’s hospitals.

Jaber, who drove two hours from the capital to pay his respects, says the cemetery will keep growing.

“There will continue to be martyrs as long as this ruling class is in power,” he says.

Clergy politics

Iraq’s current political standoff has pitted Sadr against the pro-Iran Coordination Framework, which includes lawmakers from the party of his longtime foe, ex-prime minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Sadr wants snap elections and the dissolution of parliament but the rival Shiite bloc wants a new head of government appointed before any new polls are held.

“There can’t be a reconciliation between them,” says Sadr-leaning cleric Fadel al-Bdeiri.

“The people either side with the Sadrist movement and wage this battle and secure their demands, or they side with the Framework and remain mired… in the status quo,” he tells AFP from his Najaf office.