The death toll has risen to at least 30 people after two days of unrest, officials said. Those supporting cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who resigned suddenly on Monday amid political impasse, earlier stormed the Green Zone, once a US military stronghold that now houses Iraqi government offices and foreign embassies. At least one country evacuated its diplomatic staff amid the chaos. Iraq’s government has been deadlocked since al-Sadr’s party won the largest share of seats in October’s parliamentary elections, but not enough to secure a majority government – unleashing months of infighting between different Shiite factions. Al Sadr has refused to negotiate with his Iranian-backed Shiite rivals, and his departure on Monday has plunged Iraq into political uncertainty and instability with no clear way out. The violence threatened to deepen the political crisis, although roads in other parts of the country remained largely calm and the country’s vital oil continued to flow. Iran closed its border with Iraq – a sign of Tehran’s concern that chaos could spread. Live television footage showed al-Sadr supporters firing both heavy machine guns and grenades into the heavily fortified Green Zone through a section of collapsed concrete walls. Bystanders, seemingly oblivious to the danger, filmed the fight on their cellphones. As al-Sadr’s forces opened fire, a line of armored tanks stood on the other side of the barriers surrounding the Green Belt. Thick black smoke at one point billowed over the area, visible from kilometers (miles) away. At least one injured person was carried in a three-wheeled rickshaw, with the Iraqi Foreign Ministry visible in the background. At least 30 people were killed and more than 400 wounded, two Iraqi medical officials said. The toll includes both al-Sadr loyalists killed in protests the previous day and clashes overnight. Those numbers are expected to rise, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to reporters. Members of Iraq’s Shiite Muslim sect were oppressed when Saddam Hussein ruled the country, but the US-led invasion overturned the political order. Now the Shiites are fighting each other, with Iranian-backed Shiites and Iraqi Shiite nationalists seeking power, influence and state resources. Al-Sadr’s nationalist rhetoric and reform agenda resonate strongly with its supporters, who largely come from Iraq’s poorest strata of society and were historically excluded from the political system under Saddam. His announcement that he was leaving politics implicitly gave his supporters the freedom to act as they pleased. Iranian state television cited unrest and a military-imposed curfew in Iraqi cities as the reason for the border closure. He called on Iranians to avoid any travel to the neighboring country. The decision came as millions of people prepared to visit Iraq for an annual pilgrimage to Shiite sites, and Tehran encouraged Iranian pilgrims already in Iraq to avoid further travel between cities. Kuwait, meanwhile, called on its citizens to leave Iraq. State news agency KUNA also encouraged those hoping to travel to Iraq to delay their plans. The tiny Gulf Arab sheikhdom of Kuwait shares a 254 km (158 mi) border with Iraq. The Netherlands has evacuated its embassy in the Green Zone, Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra tweeted early Tuesday. “There is shooting around the embassy in Baghdad. Our staff are now working at the German embassy elsewhere in the city,” Hoekstra wrote. Dubai’s long-haul carrier Emirates suspended flights to Baghdad on Tuesday due to the ongoing unrest. The carrier said it was “monitoring the situation closely”. He did not say when flights would resume. On Monday, protesters loyal to al-Sadr pulled down concrete barriers outside the government palace with ropes and breached the palace gates. Many rushed into the palace’s opulent salons and marble halls, a key meeting point for Iraqi heads of state and foreign dignitaries. Iraq’s military announced a nationwide curfew and the caretaker prime minister suspended cabinet meetings in response to the violence.
