Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have participated in a mass prayer in Baghdad called for by influential Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, a highly symbolic move amid an unprecedented political crisis roiling Iraq.
In a show of strength, al-Sadr had called on his followers to pray on Friday inside Baghdad’s Green Zone – a heavily fortified area in the heart of the capital city that houses government buildings, foreign embassies and Iraq’s parliament, which his supporters have occupied since Saturday.
