The leader called for "a million-strong, peaceful, unified demonstration to condemn the American presence and its violations," he tweeted on Tuesday.
Anti-government protesters have been in the streets for more than three months, demanding regime change, constitutional change, and better lives in a country where poverty and corruption are widespread.
Security forces have responded with deadly violence, including live rounds and military-grade tear gas.
More than 520 protesters and security force members have been killed, and at least 17,000 people have been injured since protests began in October.
Sadr’s statement follows a non-binding resolution passed by the Iraqi parliament asking the Iraqi government to end the presence of the US-led Global Coalition against Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(ISIS) forces.
"We will not bow for anyone except Allah" Sadr added in his statement, adding that the "movement" will be the start of a series of protests and strikes in order to return "dignity and illusory sovereignty" to Iraq.
Sadr, head of the Sairoon Allliance, the largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament, founded southern Iraq’s Mahdi Army in 2003. His militia killed and injured scores of American servicemen.
He disbanded the militia in 2008. However,
a woman is only as old as she admits...
he announced the reactivation of the Mahdi Army after Soleimani's death, referring to himself as the "head of Iraqi National Resistance®."
| No longer pretending to be independent? Good. Another President Trump clarification, which means we needn’t hold back from a self-named enemy. Someone send a message to Ayatollah Mike at the CIA. |
Other officials have echoed Sadr's calls for US forces to leave Iraq, and the region as a whole.
Earlier on Tuesday, Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq Iraj Masjedi told Rudaw during at a Sulaimani business fair that US troops "need to leave the entire Middle East."