Sadr followers hold mass prayer outside Iraqi parliament to demand early elections

Thousands of followers of Moqtada al-Sadr held a mass prayer outside parliament in Baghdad on Friday in a show of support for the powerful Shia cleric who has called for Iraq's judiciary to dissolve parliament by the end of next week.

Supporters of the populist leader have occupied the Iraqi parliament since July after a 10-month political stalemate that followed elections last October. Sadr was the biggest winner but failed to form a government free of Iranian-backed parties.

He withdrew his lawmakers from parliament and is now preventing the chamber from electing a new government and is demanding early elections.

On Wednesday he said the judiciary must dissolve parliament by the end of next week. If not "the revolutionaries will take another stand", he said without elaborating.

Outside parliament on Friday thousands of Sadr supporters gathered for prayer. Most were dressed in black to mark the Muslim month of Muharram and some wore white capes symbolising burial shrouds and their willingness to die.

"You will not break Iraq as long as Sadr is here," an imam told the crowd from a big red stage set up outside parliament. "There is no going back from this revolution ... and the people will not give up their demands."

In the intense summer heat, men picked their way through the worshippers and sprayed them with cold water. Some carried portraits of Sadr and his father, also a prominent cleric, as well as Iraqi flags.

"We have revolted and there is no going back," said Mohammed Elwan, 40, carrying a portrait of Sadr.

Hamid Hussain, a father of five, said: "I am here to call for an early election and make sure that all the corrupt faces are excluded from the upcoming elections...I became unemployed because of the corrupt parties."

Sadr's opponents also accuse him of corruption. They say his loyalists have run some of Iraq's most corrupt and dysfunctional government departments.

Iran-aligned political groups were expected to hold their own demonstration later on Friday, the latest in a series of protest and counter-protest in recent days which have led to fears of unrest.

Sadr counts millions of Iraqis among his followers and has shown he can still stir up gatherings by hundreds of thousands of supporters, mostly working-class Shia Muslims, if he needs to exert political pressure.

His father Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr was killed more than 20 years ago for his outspoken opposition to Saddam Hussein. When Saddam was topped in a US-led invasion in 2003 Sadr began an insurgency against US troops.

His new foes, however, are Shia leaders and parties mostly aligned with Iran, with Sadr positioning himself as a nationalist who rejects foreign interference.

(Reuters)