Naming their demonstrations “Consistency Friday,” the protest organization committee said in a statement that they “affirm our demands,” which include a manual recount of all votes. The protest by supporters of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi) began days after the preliminary results of the October 10 parliamentary elections were announced.
Over a hundred people, mostly from the security forces, were injured and at least one person was killed on November 5 when protesters tried to storm the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to government offices and diplomatic missions. Days later, an explosive-laden drone was used to attack the residence of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi in what security forces called an assassination attempt.
The United Nations Security Council on Monday condemned the violence and “attempts to discredit the election” and urged all parties to make their complaints through legal avenues.
Hashd-affiliated political parties performed poorly in the election. The Fatih Alliance was one of the biggest losers, seeing its parliamentary seats reduced by two-thirds. The alliance won 15 of 329 parliamentary seats, compared to the 48 it won in 2018.
The electoral commission received nearly 1,500 complaints and has completed a partial manual recount based on the complaints. It has yet to announce final results, but said they are largely unchanged.
“We will continue to protest until our demands are met. Our demand is the cancellation of this election’s results because the election was rigged,” a protester told Rudaw’s Halkawt Aziz on Friday.
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose movement won the most seats in the election and is set to lead the next government, on Thursday called on the militias to disband if they want to join his government. A senior official in the hardline pro-Iran militia Kataib Hezbollah, Abu Ali al-Askari, responded saying that they would give up their weapons only after Sadr’s armed group, Saraya al-Salam, and the Kurdish Peshmerga did so.
Sadr on Friday announced he was shutting down one of his brigades. “As a goodwill gesture from me, I announce the dissolution of the al-Yum al-Wuud [the Promised Day] Brigade, and the closure of their headquarters,” he tweeted. He said the group had previously handed over its weapons and that anyone in the brigade who still has a weapon must turn it in within 48 hours.
“I hope this step will be the beginning of the dissolution of armed groups as well as the handover of their weapons and closure of their bases,” he said.
Sadr has previously said that all arms should be exclusively in the hands of the state.
US withdrawal
The same militias have also demanded the withdrawal of American forces from the country.
US troops toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003 and remained in the country until 2011. Three years later, when the Islamic State group (ISIS) seized large amounts of territory across Syria and Iraq, Baghdad invited American troops to return to the country to help fight the terror group as part of a global coalition against ISIS.
In January 2020, two years after ISIS was declared territorially defeated in Iraq, the US assassinated Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and PMF deputy commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a drone strike in Baghdad, sparking calls from Iran-backed militia groups for the withdrawal of all US troops from the country. The militias are blamed for frequent rocket and drone attacks on US interests in Iraq, the Kurdistan Region, and Syria.
Following strategic talks between Baghdad and Washington, the US agreed to change its mission in Iraq, focusing on advising and assisting and withdrawing all combat forces by the end of 2021.
The Iraqi Resistance Coordination Committee, which includes several pro-Iran militia groups, in a Friday statement published on a Telegram channel affiliated with them, said they have observed an increase in US troops and weapons in Iraq despite nearing the withdrawal deadline. “We have even heard official and semi-official statements … about their intention not to withdraw,” it stated.
“We affirm that the resistance’s weapons, which have been talked about a lot recently, will be ready to dismember the occupation forces as soon as the moment the deadline ends, after 12am in the evening of 12/31/2021,” the committee warned.
