CTS units to be deployed in Baghdad in anticipation of emergency-source
Shafaq News/ Units from the Counter-Terrorism-Service (CTS) will be deployed in the Green Zone and along the road leading to Baghdad's international airport, a source revealed on Sunday evening.
The source told Shafaq News Agency that "the CTS forces deployment came from above in anticipation for any emergency."
A power struggle in Iraq between the influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr and the Shiite Coordination Framework has escalated with the former's supporters breaking into parliament and beginning an open-ended sit-in protest, and the latter's call for counter-demonstrations tomorrow, Monday.
Tensions have worsened since an October election in which al-Sadr's movement emerged as the biggest bloc with 74 of parliament's 329 seats.
After failing to overturn the result in the courts, the Iran-backed factions set about stymying al-Sadr's efforts to form a government that would include his Kurdish and Sunni allies but exclude groups he described as corrupt or loyal to external forces.
Despite their diminished numbers in parliament, the Iran-aligned groups managed to frustrate al-Sadr by denying the two-thirds quorum needed to elect a Kurdish head of state - the first step towards forming a government.
Frustrated at the deadlock, Sadr instructed his lawmakers to quit parliament in June. The move ceded dozens of seats to the Coordination Framework, meaning it could try to form a government of its choosing, though this would risk al-Sadr's wrath.
Al-Sadr's rivals then floated a candidate, Mohammed Shiyaa al-Sudani, seen by al-Sadr's supporters as a Maliki loyalist. This step appears to have been the final straw for Sadr supporters, igniting the protests.
In a statement he issued earlier today, al-Sadr, the arch-foe of the Shiite Coordination Framework, instructed his followers to push for a complete overhaul of the political system, including a new constitution, and expel the country's elites whom he condemned as "corrupt".
In response, the Coordination Framework said it will defend "the legitimacy of the Iraqi state" against Muqtada al-Sadr's calls to "overthrow the state and constitution", calling for mass counter-demonstrations tomorrow.
