Senior cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers to end protests in central Baghdad on Tuesday, easing a confrontation that led to the deadliest violence in the Iraqi capital in years.
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Apologizing to Iraqis after 22 people were killed in clashes between an armed group loyal to him and rival Shi'ite Muslim factions backed by Iran, Sadr condemned the fighting and gave his own followers one hour to disperse.
"This is not a revolution because it has lost its peaceful character," Sadr, a former anti-US insurgent leader, said in a televised address. "The spilling of Iraqi blood is forbidden."
As the deadline passed, Sadr's followers could be seen leaving the area in the fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad where government offices were located and where they had occupied parliament for weeks.
Monday's clashes between rival factions of Iraq's Shi'ite majority follow 10 months of political deadlock since Iraq's October parliamentary election.
The clashes pitted loyalists of Sadr, who has positioned himself as a nationalist opposed to all foreign and especially Iranian influence, against political and armed groups backed by Iran.
Sadr emerged as the main winner in the election but failed to form a government with Sunni Muslim Arab and Kurdish parties, excluding the Iran-backed Shi'ite groups.
This week's violence erupted after Sadr said he was withdrawing from all political activity – a decision he said was prompted by the failure of other Shi'ite leaders and parties to reform a corrupt and decaying governing system.
An Iraqi government official, speaking on condition of anonymity shortly before Sadr's address, said authorities could not impose control on the rival armed groups.
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"The government is powerless to stop this because the military is divided into [Iran] loyalists and Sadrists as well," he said.
President Barham Salih welcomed the initial cessation of violence after Sadr's address but warned that the political crisis was not over and called for early elections – a demand of Sadr – as a potential way out of the deadlock.
Sadr's Shi'ite, Iran-aligned opponents welcomed his call for calm, including Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of the main rival political alliance to the populist cleric. "Sadr's initiative is brave and deserves praise," he said in a statement.
