The leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, criticized the operations carried out by Iraqi armed factions targeting the American military presence in Iraq, at a time when attacks on the locations of American forces and the American embassy in Baghdad escalated, whether by rocket-propelled grenades or drones.
Al-Sadr said in a meeting with members of the parliamentary "Sairoon" coalition that supports him that "these strikes - whether they took place in the Kurdistan region or in other areas of Iraq - contributed to the increase in the number of US forces, rather than ending their presence in the country."
Al-Sadr also criticized the practices carried out by factions affiliated with the Popular Mobilization earlier, during which they surrounded the Green Zone in central Baghdad.
neighboring countries
Al-Sadr warned neighboring countries against violating Iraqi sovereignty, saying that if these countries or others did not respect Iraq, we would not deal with it in a positive way, as he put it.
The leader of the "current" Muqtada al-Sadr is a prominent politician and cleric in Iraq, and supports the "Sairoon" alliance, which came first in the 2018 parliamentary elections with 54 seats out of 329, and has several positions condemning Iranian interference in Iraqi affairs.
During the past weeks, Iraq witnessed an escalation in the frequency of attacks with missiles, booby-trapped drones and explosive devices, targeting the US embassy inside the Green Zone in the center of the capital, Baghdad, and the international coalition forces led by Washington in military bases scattered throughout Iraq.
Washington usually accuses Iraqi armed factions linked to Iran of being behind the attacks targeting its embassy and military bases in Iraq.
And repeatedly, factions close to Iran - including the Iraqi "Hezbollah" Brigades - have threatened to target the deployment sites of US forces in Iraq if Washington does not end its military presence in the country.