One of Iraq’s most influential Shiite clerics, Moqtada al-Sadr, said he has decided to quit politics, distancing himself from any political movement that uses his name.
Al-Sadr has made such announcements before, but the current declaration comes just two months before Iraq’s national parliamentary elections. Sadrists hold 40 out of 325 seats in the legislature, making them the largest single Shiite bloc, and hold six Cabinet seats.
In the statement made late on Saturday, al-Sadr said his move was to “preserve the reputation of the al-Sadr [family] ... and to put an end to all the wrongdoings that were conducted, or could be conducted, under their title.”
The statement did not explain further.
“I announce here that I will not interfere in politics. There is no political entity that represents me anymore nor any position in parliament and government,” al-Sadr said in the statement.
“Whoever acts against this will be subjected to legal and religious action,” he added.
He also ordered all Sadr political offices to be closed down.
Al-Sadr came to prominence in the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, whose regime killed his father and grandfather. He established his Mehdi Army militia that fought the Americans and is blamed by many Iraqis for much of the sectarian violence that raged in Iraq in 2006 and 2007.
Meanwhile, the nation’s main al-Qaeda breakaway group on Sunday claimed responsibility for an audacious attack on a military barracks that killed 15 Iraqi troops last week.
Along with the statement, posted on a Web site commonly used by jihadists, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant put up an image of the beheading of one of the soldiers, as well as captured weapons and vehicles. The statement also listed other attacks against security forces in and around Mosul, about 360km northwest of Baghdad.
The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified, but its style was consistent with previous statements.
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