Ferocious gunfire kept Baghdad on edge for nearly 18 hours as rival Shia militias battled it out. For the second time in a month, supporters of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr breached the walls of the Green Zone, and other Shia militias fought back, leaving at least two dozen dead across the capital and in the country’s south.
Witnesses described escalating clashes, with al-Sadr supporters attacking the offices of Shia militias and fighters battling it out with small arms, heavy-calibre weapons, drones, rockets and mortars.
