1st LD: Followers of prominent Shiite cleric storm Baghdad Green Zone

Hundreds of followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday stormed the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad to hold a sit-in in front of the parliament building.

Dozens of the demonstrators broke into the main gate of the government district and many others jumped over the barbed wired fences into the zone that houses the main government offices, including the parliament and some foreign embassies.

The protesters were well-controlled by their leaders who shouted that their move inside the Green Zone must be peaceful and the security forces are their brothers not enemies.

Some of the protesters entered the parliament building and prevented a number of parliament workers and some lawmakers from leaving the building.

The storm of the Green Zone came minutes after Sadr delivered a televised speech from the holy Shiite city of Najaf, in which he rejected the latest approval of partial cabinet members presented earlier by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

"Any minister in the Iraqi government is not our candidate and represents only his government," Sadr said, confirming that he and his followers "will not participate in any political process that includes quota system," Sadr said referring to the political system created following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to which Iraq's resources and control would be divided among the political parties representing Iraq's ethnic and sectarian factions.

Sadr's discontent with the partial cabinet reshuffle, which was part of Abadi's reforms, was seen as a signal for his followers to increase pressure on the parliament by storming the Green Zone. Endit