Iraqi demonstrators leave Baghdad's Green Zone

Protesters inside the Green Zone in Baghdad.
(Image credit: Haidar Mohammed Ali/AFP/Getty Images)

Hundreds of protesters who stormed Baghdad's fortified Green Zone on Saturday to demand an end to corruption left Sunday, following an order from the man who sent them there, Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.

The influential cleric said he was asking them to leave out of "respect" for a Shiite pilgrimage underway, but vowed they would be back on Friday if their demands weren't met. Al-Sadr has demanded that Parliament meet to approve a capable new cabinet soon or else he will call for the dissolution of the government and early elections. In a statement Sunday, he asked the protesters to leave peacefully, clean up after themselves, and chant for a unified Iraq, not sects. Many of the protesters blamed the United States for the political system in place and its sectarian quotas, The New York Times reports, and in a joint statement, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, President Fuad Masum, and Salim al-Jubouri, the speaker of Parliament, condemned the damage done to the Parliament building and said they will continue to meet to "assure progress in reforming the political process."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.