Muqtada al-Sadr
Beginning on 9 April 2011, the 8th anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein, the protests escalated with thousands protesting in Baghdad's Tahrir Square and all over the country. The protests extended to anger at the US occupation and culminated on 26 May 2011 with a demonstration organized by Muqtada al-Sadr. Reports of participants vary from 20,000 (Iran's "Press TV"), to 100 thousand (Iraq's official "Al Sabaah") to half a million people (Baghdad's independent "New Sabah" ]). (The highest figures are not unlikely, as similar protests by Muqtada al-Sadr have drawn up to a million people, as in 2007 and 2012.)