BAGHDAD: Tens of thousands attended Friday prayers in Baghdad's Green Zone in a new power play by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr after his adversaries conditionally backed his call for early elections. Sadr, a longtime political and religious force in Iraq, has for months been in a political standoff with a rival Shia alliance backed by Iran. Worshippers converged on a vast square inside the normally secure Green Zone, home to government and diplomatic buildings, including the parliament which his followers began occupying on July 30.

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