Explosion in Baghdad’s Sadr City

On Wednesday June 6^th, 2018, an explosion ripped through a mosque in Sector 10 of Baghdad’s Sadr City. The blast took place in weapons depot located inside a Shiite mosque. Officials are not sure what triggered the explosion which destroyed around 20 homes. The explosion killed at least 18 and injured 90. According to a Twitter user the Shi’a mosque was in Section 10 of Sadr City near Al Falah Street.

The explosion reportedly took place as weapons were being transferred to a vehicle. Security forces are looking into why the weapons were stored in the mosque.

Iraq’s prime minister has ordered an investigation into the explosions that destroyed the mosque. Sadr City is one of the main strongholds for the supports of Muqtada al-Sadr. His supporters fought American troops in the years after the Iraq invasion in 2003.  Al-Sadr’s militia is part of the Iraqi government approved Popular Mobilization Force (PMF) which took part in the war against the Islamic State.

In Iraq’s May 12 parliamentary elections Al-Sadr’s followers won the largest number of seats. Sadr’s party however still needs to establish a coalition government with other political bloc, and negotiations could take months to figure out.

Muqtada al-Sadr is not a new name to western audiences. In April, of 2004 U.S. troops fought the Sadr militia in a series of actions culminating in the Battle of Najaf where U.S. forces and their allies largely defeated Sadr’s Mahdi Army. Sadr would subsequently go into hiding in Iran.

On May 12, 2018, Sadr’s fortunate changed dramatically. Sadr secured 54 seats out of the total 329 in the most recent parliamentary election. Sadr would need to secure 165 seats in his coalition in order to appoint a prime minister and form a government.

Sadr’s prominence appears to have been a surprise for most foreign countries active inside Iraq, including the United States Iran, and Saudi Arabia. There does not appear to be any indication the election was tampered with, although the election had one of the lowest turnouts of any election since 2005. This is unsurprising given strong disenfranchisement amongst the country’s Sunni minority and the continued effort to establish government services and stability over previously Islamic State-held territories. While previously known for close ties to Iran, Al-Sadr presented himself as a strong Iraqi nationalist in contrast to Shia political parties viewed as controlled by Iran.

It remains to be seen what the direct cause of the explosion was, and whether it represented an attack against Sadr and his forces or was merely a work accident. Yet with Sadr in a position to develop the next coalition Iraqi government future potential attacks on his organization and its supporters shouldn’t be ruled out.