Backers of Shia religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr have tried to march towards the Iraqi parliament.

Sadr supporters attempted to advance past security forces guarding the parliament on Wednesday, before being confronted by riot police.

Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from the Green Zone, said that the protesters threw stones at security forces, and added that they were trying to make their way to the parliament.

The confrontation between the security forces and al-Sadr’s supporters comes almost a month after fighting broke out between militias supporting al-Sadr and others supporting his Shia rivals on August 30. More than 30 people died in the worst violence Baghdad had seen for years, before al-Sadr ordered his supporters to withdraw.

Al-Sadr’s bloc won the most votes in the parliamentary elections last October but he was unable to form a majority government. He then ordered his bloc to resign en-masse from parliament, which they duly did in June.

Al-Sadr’s followers stormed parliament in late July to prevent their rivals from the Iran-backed Coordination Framework Alliance from forming a government themselves.

With ensuing rallies, clashes with security forces, counter-rallies and a sit-in outside parliament, the government formation process has stalled.

Al-Sadr has now been calling for the dissolution of parliament and early elections and has been in a power struggle with his Iran-backed rivals since the vote.