Moqtada Tateral-Sadr
... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah...
began an indefinite sit-in on Saturday night at parliament headquarters, two MPs told AFP, amid widespread anti-government protests.
A second wave of demonstrations demanding an end to corruption and an overhaul of the political system have rocked the capital Baghdad and the south since late Thursday.
Al-Sadr has already demanded the current government resign, but on Saturday members of his Saeroon bloc - parliament’s largest with 54 MPs - said they would escalate.
"We are on our way now to parliament for the sit-in, until the enactment of all reforms the Iraqi people are demanding," said MP Badr al-Zayadi.
Saeroon politicians were in touch with others to persuade them to join the move, he added.
Al-Zayadi told AFP the bloc had sent an "official request" to Iraqi President Barham Saleh who, according to Iraq’s constitution, could then ask parliament to withdraw confidence from the premier.
MP Raed Fahmy, a member of Iraq’s Communist Party who is allied to al-Sadr, confirmed the sit-in.
"We have joined the opposition and we demand the government resign," Fahmy told AFP.
Protests first erupted in Iraq on October 1, over unemployment, poor services and perceived government graft.