Police outnumbered: Sadrists stage jailbreak in Iraq’s Najaf
Shafaq News/ Dozens of supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the head of the Patriotic Shiite Movement (Sadrists), surrounded a police station in central Najaf late Friday night, freeing four detainees affiliated with al-Sadr’s movement, a security source told Shafaq News.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the confrontation erupted after security forces arrested four members of Saraya al-Salam, the armed wing of the Movement. The men were detained while attempting to raise flags representing the Movement atop al-Zahraa bridges in the center of the city, leading to a verbal altercation with police.
“Later, more than 200 Sadrists gathered and besieged the Maysan neighborhood police station,” the source said. “They managed to forcibly release the detainees after surrounding the building.”
The security source added that police forces were overwhelmed by the size of the crowd and were unable to regain control of the situation or re-arrest the freed individuals.
