The satellite images below show Baghdad in the early afternoon of April 26, just after protests reached their peak. Obtained from Stratfor's partner, AllSource Analysis, the photographs capture the movement of large crowds from Tahrir Square toward the Green Zone, where many international embassies and Iraq's most important government buildings are housed. Based on their density, the crowds likely consisted of between 56,000 and 71,000 protesters. The fairly substantial number indicates al-Sadr's continued popularity among Iraqis. Al-Sadr called for the demonstrations as part of his broader effort to pressure Iraqi politicians to form a technocratic government. Cobbled together along sectarian lines, the current clientelist system, in place since 2004, is particularly vulnerable to corruption and co-optation by external actors. Iraqi citizens across the political and religious spectrums are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with what they consider inept governance, especially as Iraq sinks deeper into its economic and security crises.