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Thousands of Shia militia loyal to the powerful cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have paraded through the streets of Baghdad, raising sectarian tensions amid continued fighting in areas of Iraq.
The cleric, whose Mehdi Army fought the US in Iraq for years, had called for a military parade across the country.
Correspondents say the show of force will be seen as a very disturbing development by the Baghdad government.
Sunni extremists have seized control of large swathes of territory across Iraq.
Yesterday, officials admitted that the militants – led by jihadist group Isis – had seized a strategically important border crossing to Syria, near the town of Qaim, killing 30 troops after a day-long battle.
Thousands of largely Shia Iraqis have volunteered to fight Isis, urged on by a call from the country’s highest Shia religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
But the BBC’s Jim Muir, in northern Iraq, says the impressive-looking parade of men in battle fatigues accompanied by serious military hardware will only raise sectarian tensions at time when the government is under pressure to rally the country together against the extremists.
The Sunni militants also claim to have taken several towns in al-Anbar province, saying that they have been seized without bloodshed after negotiating with local Sunni tribes.
The militants also say they are making progress in fighting in a belt of territory north of Baghdad, our correspondent reports. – BBC
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