This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "National Shiite Movement" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(July 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

TheNational Shiite Movement (Arabic:التيار الوطني الشيعي), also known as theSadrist Movement (Arabic:التيار الصدري,romanized: al-Tayyār al-Sadrī), is anIraqiShiaIslamic national movement and political party, led byMuqtada al-Sadr.

The Sadrist Movement ended as largest political party in the October2021 Iraqi parliamentary election, with 73 seats in Parliament, but in June 2022, during the2021–2022 Iraqi political crisis, Muqtada al-Sadr’s bloc resigned from parliament.^[3]

In the2009 governorate elections, the Sadrist Movement took part as theIndependent Free Movement List, receiving 9.8% of the vote and winning 43 out of 440 seats, in third place behind theState of Law Coalition and theIslamic Supreme Council of Iraq.^[4][5][6]

In the2010 parliamentary election, the Sadrist Movement ran as part of theNational Iraqi Alliance. At a press conference on 6 March, ahead of the election]], Muqtada al-Sadr called on all Iraqis to participate in the election and support those seeking thewithdrawal of U.S. troops from the country. Al-Sadr warned that any interference by the United States would be unacceptable. Al-Sadr, who had thousands of staunch followers across Iraq, had been consistently opposing the presence of foreign forces and repeatedly called for an immediate end to theIraq War.^[7]

Over time, numerous factions in the Sadrist Movement disagreed with Muqtada al-Sadr over various issues and broke off, forming separate militias and parties:

• Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq^[8][9]
• Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas Forces^[8][9]
• Jaysh al-Mu'ammal^[8][9]
• Tashkil al-Hussein al-Tha'ir^[8]
• Kata'ib al-Tayyar al-Risali^[8]
• Islamic Virtue Party^[8]

In October 2012, various Iraqi religious sects joined the conflict in Syria on both sides. Shiites from Iraq, inBabil Governorate andDiyala Governorate, have traveled toDamascus fromBaghdad, or from the Shiite holy city ofNajaf,Iraq, claiming to protectSayyida Zeinab, an important Shiite shrine in Damascus.^[10] Abu Mohamed, with the Sadrist trend, said he recently received an invitation from the Sadrists' leadership to discuss the shrine in Damascus.^[10] A senior Sadrist official and former member of Parliament, said that convoys of buses from Najaf, under the cover story of pilgrims, were carrying weapons and fighters toDamascus.^[10] Some of the pilgrims were members ofIran'sIslamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' EliteQuds Force.^[10]

However, later in 2017 following theKhan Shaykhun chemical attack in Syria, Muqtada al-Sadr called for Syria's presidentBashar al-Assad to step down from power.^[11][12]

In the2014 parliamentary elections, the Sadrists formed theAl-Ahrar Bloc (Arabic:كتلة الأحرار,romanized: Kotlat Al-Ahrar orfreeones Bloc), headed byDia al-Asadi, which strongly opposed a third term for al-Maliki and hisState of Law Coalition. Al-Ahrar won 7% of the vote and 34 seats, making it the second largest group in the Iraqi parliament, after theState of Law Coalition, which won 24% and 92 seats. The seats were divided as follows:

* includes: Other allied forces - 6 seats

In preparation for the2018 parliamentary election, Sadr withdrew the Al-Ahrar Bloc from parliament and urged its MPs not to stand in the May poll, in order to make way for a new list known asAlliance Towards Reforms, mainly composed of the Sadrist Movement and theIraqi Communist Party. This list finished as the largest party in the election on 12 May, with 14.38% of the votes and 54 seats in Parliament.

The Sadrist Movement ended as the largest political party in the 10 October2021 Iraqi parliamentary elections, with 10% of the votes and 73 seats in Parliament. On 13 June 2022, during the2021–2022 Iraqi political crisis, 74 MPs from Muqtada al-Sadr's bloc resigned from parliament.^[3]

• 2003 establishments in Iraq
• Conservative parties in Iraq
• Iraqi nationalism
• Islamic political parties in Iraq
• Nationalist parties in Iraq
• Political parties established in 2003
• Pro-Assad factions of the Syrian civil war
• Shia Islamic political parties
• Axis of Resistance
• Shia Islam in Iraq
• Shia Islamist groups

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles needing additional references from July 2025
• All articles needing additional references
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing Arabic-language text