Tens of thousands of Shiites Call for U.S. to Leave Iraq
Pastor Dale Morgan
Apr 9, 11:03 PM EDT
*Tens of thousands of Shiites Call for U.S. to Leave Iraq
*
By LAUREN FRAYER
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Tens of thousands of Shiites - a sea of women in black
abayas and men waving Iraqi flags - rallied Monday to demand that U.S.
forces leave their country. Some ripped apart American flags and tromped
across a Stars and Stripes rug.
The protesters marched about three miles between the holy cities of Kufa
and Najaf to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. In the
capital, streets were silent and empty under a hastily imposed 24-hour
driving ban.
Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered up the march as a show of
strength not only to Washington but to Iraq's establishment Shiite
ayatollahs as well.
Al-Sadr, who disappointed followers hoping he might appear after months
in seclusion, has pounded his anti-American theme in a series of written
statements. The most recent came on Sunday, when he called on his Mahdi
Army militia to redouble efforts to expel American forces and for the
police and army to join the struggle against "your archenemy."
The fiery cleric owes much of his large following to the high esteem in
which Shiites hold his father, Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, who was
assassinated in 1999 by suspected agents of Saddam Hussein. Al-Sadr
dropped from view before the start of the latest Baghdad security
operation on Feb. 14. U.S. officials say he is holed up in Iran. His
followers insist he's returned to Najaf.
Fearing suicide attacks, car bombings or other mayhem in the capital,
Iraq's generals ordered all vehicles off the streets for 24 hours
starting at 5 a.m. Monday, normally a work day. The capital was eerily
quiet, shops were shuttered and locked and reports of sectarian violence
fell to near zero.
Police and morgue officials reported finding just seven bodies dumped in
the capital, only the second time the number of sectarian assassination
and torture victims had dipped that low in the course of the Baghdad
security operation. A total of 25 people were killed or found dead in
the country Monday, according to police and morgue reports.
A double line of police cordoned the marchers' route from Kufa to Najaf,
sister cities on the west bank of the Euphrates River. The holy places,
100 miles south of Baghdad, are a prime destination for Shiite pilgrims.
Among the snapping flags and giant banners, leaflets fluttered to earth,
exhorting the marchers in chants of "Yes, Yes to Iraq" and "Yes, Yes to
Muqtada. Occupiers should leave Iraq."
Salah al-Obaydi, a senior official in al-Sadr's Najaf organization,
called the rally a "call for liberation. We're hoping that by next
year's anniversary, we will be an independent and liberated Iraq with
full sovereignty."
And the head of al-Sadr's parliamentary bloc, Nassar al-Rubaie, blasted
the U.S. presence as an affront to "the dignity of the Iraqi people.
After four years of occupation, we have hundreds of thousands of people
dead and wounded."
A key Washington official saw it differently.
"Iraq, four years on, is now a place where people can freely gather and
express their opinions," Gordon Johndroe, the National Security Council
spokesman, said aboard Air Force One. "And while we have much more
progress ahead of us - the United States, the coalition and Iraqis have
much more to do - this is a country that has come a long way from the
tyranny of Saddam Hussein."
Col. Steven Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman and aide to Gen. David
Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, praised the peaceful demonstration
and said Iraqis "could not have done this four years ago."
Iraqi soldiers in uniform joined the crowd of marchers which stretch for
at least three miles and was led by a dozen turbaned clerics, a Sunni
Muslim among them. Many marchers, especially youngsters, danced as they
moved through the streets, littered with balloons.
Brig. Abdul Kerim al-Mayahi, the Najaf police chief, said there were as
many as 600,000 in the march, although other estimates were
significantly lower. He said 30 lawmakers made the hike and there was no
American troop presence except surveillance from helicopters hovering above.
Monday's demonstration marks four years since U.S. Marines and the
Army's 3rd Infantry Division swept into the Iraqi capital 20 days into
the American invasion.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari noted that "mistakes were made" after
Saddam was ousted, pointing to decisions made by the first U.S. governor
of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer.
"The main mistake was a vacuum left in the fields of security and
politics, and the second mistake was how liberating forces became
occupation forces," Zebari told Al-Arabiyah television.
Cars were banned from Najaf for 24 hours starting from 8 p.m. Sunday,
and buses idled at all city entry points to transport arriving
demonstrators or other visitors.
While al-Sadr had ordered his militia to disarm and stay off the streets
during the Baghdad crackdown, he has notched up his anti-American
rhetoric in three brief but hostile statements demanding the departure
of U.S. troops.
"You, the Iraqi army and police forces, don't walk alongside the
occupiers, because they are your archenemy," he wrote, apparently
referring to three days of clashes between his Mahdi Army militiamen and
U.S.-backed Iraqi troops in Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad.
A U.S. soldier was killed there Sunday, according to Col. Michael
Garrett, with the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division. He spoke to
reporters in Diwaniyah as American troops continued operations.
On Monday night, police officials in Diwaniyah said the toll since the
start of the operation Friday was 14 dead and 47 wounded, both figures
including civilians and members of the Mahdi Army. The numbers could not
be independently confirmed.