Iraq cleric’s followers camped in parliament for 2nd day

BAGHDAD — With mattresses strewn about, food trucked in and protesters playacting as lawmakers, hundreds of followers of an influential Shiite cleric were camped out Sunday inside the Iraqi parliament after toppling security walls around the building and storming in the previous day.

The protesters — followers of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — pledged to hold an openended sit-in to derail efforts by their rivals from Iran-backed political groups to form the country’s next government. Their demands are lofty: early elections, constitutional amendments and the ouster of al-Sadr’s opponents.

The developments have catapulted Iraq’s politics to center stage, plunging the country deeper into a political crisis as a power struggle unfolds between the two major Shiite groups.

Al-Sadr has not visited the scene but egged his loyalists on, tweeting on Sunday that the sit-in was “a great opportunity to radically challenge the political system, the constitution, and the elections.” He called on all Iraqis to join the “revolution,” an indication the sit-in will likely be a drawn-out event.

On Sunday, the sit-in appeared more of a joyous celebration than a political protest — al-Sadr’s followers were dancing, praying and chanting slogans inside the parliament, in praise of their leader. In between, they took naps on mattresses lining the halls.

It was a scene starkly different from the one on Saturday, when protesters used ropes and chains to topple concrete walls around the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, then flooded into the assembly building. It was the second such breach last week, but this time they did not disperse peacefully.

Iraqi security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades at first, to try to repel the demonstrators. The Ministry of Health said about 125 people were injured in the violence.