In a press conference on 6 March 2010 ahead of the 2010 Iraqi parliamentary election, Muqtada al-Sadr called on all Iraqis to participate in the election and support those who seek the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country. Al-Sadr warned that any interference by the United States will be unacceptable. Al-Sadr, who has thousands of staunch followers across Iraq has consistently opposed the presence of foreign forces and repeatedly called for an immediate end to the Iraq War.[8]
Over time, numerous factions in the Sadrist Movement disagreed with Muqtada al-Sadr over various issues and broke off, forming separate militias and parties:
In October 2012, various Iraqi religious sects joined the conflict in Syria on both sides. Shiites from Iraq, in Babil Governorate and Diyala Governorate, have traveled to Damascus from Tehran, or from the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Iraq, claiming to protect Sayyida Zeinab, an important Shiite shrine in Damascus.[11] Abu Mohamed, with the Sadrist trend, said he recently received an invitation from the Sadrists' leadership to discuss the shrine in Damascus.[11] A senior Sadrist official and former member of Parliament, said that convoys of buses from Najaf, under the cover story of pilgrims, were carrying weapons and fighters to Damascus.[11] Some of the pilgrims were members of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.[11]
The Sadrist Movement ended as largest party in the 12 May 2018 Iraqi parliamentary elections, with 14.38% of the votes and 54 seats in Parliament.
2021 parliamentary elections
The Sadrist Movement ended as largest political party in the 10 October 2021 Iraqi parliamentary elections, with 10% of the votes and 73 seats in Parliament. On 13 June 2022, during the 2022 Iraqi political crisis, 74 MPs from Muqtada al-Sadr’s bloc resigned from parliament.[4]
