Muqtada al-Sadr, Shia leader, supports Sunni protests against PM al-Maliki in Iraq

The popular Shiite Iraqi leader, Muqtada al-Sadr has thrown his support behind Sunni protesters against Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Al-Sadr said that Maliki must bear full responsibility for the unrest in Iraq. Maliki has made a number of moves to centralise power. His actions have enraged many Sunnis and also officials in the Kurdish autonomous area in northern Iraq. Iraq's vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, a prominent Sunni politician was charged with various offenses including running death squads, convicted of murder in September, and sentenced to death in absentia. Al-Hashimi took refuge in Turkey. Sunnis say that Maliki is constantly sidelining them. During the rule of Saddam Hussein, Sunnis were dominant in the government. More recently Maliki raided the office and home of the Iraqi finance minister, Rafie al-Issawi, another prominent Sunni politician. Issawi claims that 150 of his guards and employees were arrested in the raids. These actions have sparked huge protests by Sunnis in which they have blocked off main routes to Jordan and Syria from Baghdad. No doubt al-Sadr's move has been in part calculated to improve prospects for his party and himself in upcoming elections. Al-Sadr spoke in Najaf, one of the holiest cities of the Shiite sect. In spite of many of his own followers being persecuted by Sunnis during Hussein's reign and his close connections with Iran, Al-Sadr is an Iraqi nationalist who fears the expanding conflict between Sunnis and Shia sects. Maliki's actions fuel this division. While Al-Sadr has always been fiercely anti-American, at the same time, he has always tried to foster unity among Iraqis. Al-Sadr tried to set the Sunni protests in a wider context saying:

“The Iraqi spring is coming. We are with the demonstrators, and Parliament must be with them, not against them,” he said. “The legitimate demands of the demonstrators, by which people know what they want, should be met.”

Al Sadr even expressed his willingness to go to Anbar, the Sunni-dominated province, to join in demonstrations. Maliki warned protesters that he might lose patience with the demonstrations:

"I say to those who follow these agendas: Don't think it's difficult for the government to take measures against you or to re-open the road and put an end to this matter. We have been very patient with you, but don't expect this issue to be open-ended."

Violence has increased in Iraq in 2012 and Al Qaeda appears to be making a come-back. Iraq Body Count put the civilian death toll in 2012 at 4,471 and this does not include the final two weeks of the year. Last year the toll was 4,136.