Iraqi leader battles pressure from friends and foes in security crackdown

FILE PHOTO: Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi listens during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., August 20, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - It was a series of intercepted phone calls on a tense night in June that made Iraq’s new prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi fully realise how few friends he had.

During one call, a senior Iraqi leader with strong ties to Iran instructed the security chief for Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, which hosts government buildings and foreign embassies, not to stand in the way of militiamen who were storming the area, two Iraqi security officials said.