Iraqi Shiites chant 'Death to Israel'
Pastor Dale Morgan
Iraqi Shiites chant 'Death to Israel' *
By MURTADA FARAJ Associated Press Writer
Friday, August 04, 2006 10:35 a.m. ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Hundreds of thousands of Shiites chanting "Death
to Israel" and "Death to America" marched through the streets of
Baghdad's biggest Shiite district Friday in a show of support for
Hezbollah militants battling Israeli troops in Lebanon.
No violence was reported during the rally in the Sadr City neighborhood.
But at least 35 people were killed elsewhere in Iraq, many of them in a
car bombing and gunbattle in the northern city of Mosul.
The demonstration was the biggest in the Middle East in support of
Hezbollah since the Israeli army launched an offensive July 12 after a
guerrilla raid on northern Israel. The protest was organized by radical
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose political movement built around the
Mahdi Army militia has been modeled after Hezbollah.
Al-Sadr summoned followers from throughout the Shiite heartland of
southern Iraq to converge on Baghdad for the rally but he did not attend.
Demonstrators, wearing white burial shrouds symbolizing their
willingness to die for Hezbollah, waved the group's yellow banner and
chanted slogans in support of its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, who
has attained a cult status in the Arab world for his defiance of Israel.
"Allah, Allah, give victory to Hassan Nasrallah," the crowd chanted.
"Mahdi Army and Hezbollah are one. Let them confront us if they dare,"
the predominantly male crowd shouted, waving the flags of Hezbollah,
Lebanon and Iraq.
Many walked with umbrellas in the searing afternoon sun. Volunteers
sprayed them with water.
"I am wearing the shroud and I am ready to meet martyrdom," said
Mohammed Khalaf, 35, owner of a clothes shop in the southern city of Amarah.
Al-Sadr followers painted U.S. and Israeli flags on the main road
leading to the rally site, and demonstrators stepped on them _ a gesture
of contempt in Iraq. Alongside the painted flags was written: "These are
the terrorists."
Protesters set fire to American and Israeli flags, as well as effigies
of President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, showing the
men with Dracula teeth. "Saddam and Bush, Two Faces of One Coin" was
scrawled on Bush's effigy.
Iraqi government television said the Defense Ministry had approved the
demonstration, a sign of public anger over Israel's offensive and of
al-Sadr's stature as a major player in Iraqi politics.
"I consider my participation in this rally a religious duty. I am proud
to join this crowd and I am ready to die for the sake of Lebanon," said
Khazim al-Ibadi, 40, a government employee from Hillah.
Although the rally was about Hezbollah, it was also a show of strength
by al-Sadr. Many people worried the presence of so many Shiite
demonstrators _ most of them from the Mahdi Army _ would add to
sectarian tensions in the city, which has seen almost daily clashes
between Shiite and Sunni extremists.
The sectarian violence escalated after the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite
shrine in Samarra unleashed a wave of reprisal attacks on Sunnis nationwide.
On Thursday, Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle
East, told a Senate committee in Washington that sectarian violence in
Iraq "is probably as bad as I have seen it" and that if the spiral
continued the country "could move toward civil war."
In the latest violence, at least 12 people were killed Friday when Iraqi
security forces fought gunbattles with suspected insurgents in Mosul
after a suicide car bomber attacked a police patrol, said the provincial
police commander, Maj. Gen. Withiq al-Hamdani. He said that the bombing
killed four policemen and that eight insurgents died in the subsequent
gunbattle.
On Thursday evening, a suicide bomber drove into a soccer field in the
town of Hatra near Mosul, setting off a blast that killed seven
spectators and three policemen police Col. Abdul Karim Ahmed Khalaf
said. Six civilians and nine policemen were injured, he said.
On Friday, three mortar shells hit a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad,
killing two people, wounding four and damaging some stores, police Lt.
Bilal Ali Majid, said.
An engineer was shot dead and an unidentified body, showing signs of
torture, was found in western Baghdad.
Separately, gunmen shot and killed four people and wounded eight from a
Shiite family late Thursday in Dujail, 50 miles north of Baghdad, police
Lt. Hussam al-Dujeili said.
The U.S. military said in a statement that coalition forces killed at
least three "terrorists" during an air strike and multiple raids
southeast of Baghdad on Thursday.
___
Associated Press correspondents Vijay Joshi, Sameer N. Yacoub and Qais
al-Bashir contributed to this report.