ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Senior Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Tuesday ordered the suspension of activities by his armed faction, Saraya al-Salam, and the closure of their offices in Basra and Wasit provinces for six months, citing “repeated violations” and damage to the group’s reputation.
“My dear brother Tahsin al-Humaidawi, I urge you to freeze the activities of the Saraya al-Salam brigades and close their headquarters in Basra and Kut for six months, pending a solution to the repeated violations and defamation of the reputation of Saraya al-Salam fighters,” Sadr said. Humaidawi is the deputy head of Saraya al-Salam.
In his message, Sadr, head of the National Shiite Movement - formerly the Sadrist Movement - suggested that a “third party” may be responsible for tarnishing the militia’s image, though he did not identify who.
He emphasized that the group’s reputation is more important than the presence of its offices.
Founded by Sadr in 2014, Saraya al-Salam is widely seen as a revival of his Mahdi Army, the militia that fought US forces following the 2003 invasion.
Sadr remains a popular Shiite political figure in Iraq.
His bloc emerged as the largest in the October 2021 parliamentary elections, winning 73 of 329 seats. However, his bid to form a “national majority” government with Sunni and Kurdish allies was blocked by the rival Shiite-led Coordination Framework, which sought to maintain Iraq’s post-2003 power-sharing model.
The political stalemate prompted Sadrist lawmakers to resign en masse in June 2022.
Sadr later boycotted Iraq’s November legislative vote, citing widespread corruption and flaws in the country’s political system.