Iraq protests: After clashes Moqtada al-Sadr tells supporters to withdraw

An armed member of Saraya al-Salam (Peace Brigade), military wing affiliated to Moqtada al-Sadr, helps a woman fire a machine gun during clashes with Iraqi security forces in the Green Zone Tuesday. Pic/AFP

Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr told his followers to leave their protests in central Baghdad on Tuesday and apologised to the Iraqi people after nearly two days of violent clashes between rival Shi'ite Muslim groups.

Iraqi security forces on Tuesday lifted a nation-wide curfew, the state news agency reported after he asked supporters to withdraw. "This is not a revolution (anymore) because it has lost its peaceful character," Sadr said in a televised address. "The spilling of Iraqi blood is forbidden," he added.

In a televised speech Tuesday, al-Sadr gave his supporters, hundreds of whom stormed the government palace and have been holding an ongoing sit-in outside the parliament building, an hour to leave.

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Supporters of the influential Iraqi Shiite cleric fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns into Iraq's Green Zone and security forces returned fire Tuesday, a serious escalation of a months long political crisis gripping the nation. The death toll rose to at least 30 people over 400 wounded after two days of unrest, officials said.

After cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced Monday he would resign from politics, his supporters stormed the Green Zone, once the stronghold of the U.S. military that's now home to Iraqi government offices and foreign embassies. At least one country, the Netherlands, evacuated its embassy amid the chaos.

Iraq's government has been deadlocked since al-Sadr's party won the largest share of seats in October parliamentary elections but not enough to secure a majority government, unleashing months of infighting between different Shiite factions.

Al-Sadr refused to negotiate with his Iran-backed Shiite rivals, and his withdrawal Monday catapulted Iraq into political uncertainty and volatility with no clear path out.

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No of people killed in the clashes