Deadly clashes rage in Baghdad in Shi'ite power struggle

FILE PHOTO: Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr attends a news conference in Najaf, Iraq, November 18, 2021 REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani/File Photo

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -Heavy clashes erupted in Baghdad, killing almost 20 people on Monday, after powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said he would quit politics, prompting his loyalists to storm a government palace and fight with rival groups.

As night fell, machine-gun fire and explosions rang out, with tracer fire rising into the sky above the Green Zone that houses government headquarters and foreign embassies, in the worst fighting the Iraqi capital has seen in years.