Clashes in IraqCAiro, Aug 30Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in a telephone conversation with Iraqi President Barham Saleh, expressed his readiness to help de-escalate the situation in the country where clashes continue, the office of the Egyptian leader reports. leader Muqtada al-Sadr by the Saraya al-Salam (Peace Detachments) brigade and the Shia militia al-Hashd al-Shaabi. The parties use mortars and heavy machine guns. The victims of the clashes, according to the Al Jazeera TV channel, citing medical sources, were 20 people. «The President, during a telephone conversation, stressed Egypt's full support for Iraq in the current circumstances … expressing Egypt's readiness, together with the Arab brothers, to contribute to any joint effort to stop the escalation and confrontation,» al-Sisi's office said in a statement. Earlier, Muqtada al-Sadr announced the cessation of his political activities and all offices of his party in protest against the government's unwillingness to hold early parliamentary elections in the absence of the opportunity to create a broad coalition of Shiite forces in parliament. Hundreds of al-Sadr's supporters burst into the «green zone» of Baghdad after his announcement of his resignation from politics. Protesters also broke into the Republican Palace, the headquarters of the Iraqi government located in the Green Zone, where clashes broke out between them and law enforcement forces. It was reported that the security forces used firearms and tear gas. Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazimi appealed to Muqtada al-Sadr with a request to call on his supporters to leave the government buildings they had seized. that he intends to continue it until the cessation of violence in Iraq.
