posted on April 9, 2007 10:19:00 AM
Iraqis March in Honor of Baghdad's Fall
By LAUREN FRAYER
Associated Press Writer
Published April 9, 2007, 11:33 AM CDT
BAGHDAD -- Tens of thousands draped themselves in Iraqi flags and marched peacefully through the streets of two Shiite holy cities Monday to mark the fourth anniversary of Baghdad's fall. Demonstrators were flanked by two cordons of police as they called for U.S. forces to leave, shouting "Get out, get out occupier!"
Security was tight across Iraq, with a 24-hour ban on all vehicles in Baghdad starting from 5 a.m. Monday. The government quickly reinstated the day as a holiday, rescinding its weekend order that had decreed that April 9 no longer would be a day off.
The Najaf rally was ordered by Muqtada al-Sadr, the powerful Shiite cleric who a day earlier issued a statement ordering his militiamen to redouble their battle to oust American forces, and argued that Iraq's army and police should join him in defeating "your archenemy."
Demonstrators marched from Kufa to neighboring Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad. Those marching were overwhelmingly Shiite, but Sunnis -- who are believed to make up the heart of Iraq's insurgency -- have also called for an American withdrawal.
Some at the rally waved small Iraqi flags; others hoisted a giant flag 10 yards long. Leaflets fluttered through the breeze reading: "Yes, Yes to Iraq" and "Yes, Yes to Muqtada. Occupiers should leave Iraq."
"The enemy that is occupying our country is now targeting the dignity of the Iraqi people," said lawmaker Nassar al-Rubaie, head of al-Sadr's bloc in parliament, as he marched. "After four years of occupation, we have hundreds of thousands of people dead and wounded."
A senior official in al-Sadr's organization in Najaf, Salah al-Obaydi, 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," he said.
Al-Sadr did not attend the demonstration, and has not appeared in public for months. U.S. officials say he left Iraq for neighboring Iran after the Feb. 14 start of a Baghdad security crackdown, but his followers say he is in Iraq.
Iraqi soldiers in uniform joined the crowd, which was led by at least a dozen turbaned clerics -- including one Sunni. Many marchers danced as they moved through the streets.
The demonstration ended without violence after about three hours, but two ambulances could be seen moving slowly with the marching crowd, poised to help if violence or stampedes broke out.
Col. Steven Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman and aide to the commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq, praised the peaceful nature of the demonstration, saying Iraqis "could not have done this four years ago."
"This is the right to assemble, the right to free speech -- they didn't have that under the former regime," Boylan said. "This is progress, there's no two ways about it."
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 said Monday that "mistakes were made" after Saddam Hussein's regime was ousted four years ago.
"The main mistake was a vacuum left in the fields of security and politics, and 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, said police spokesman Col. Ali Jiryo. Buses idled at all entrances of the city to transport arriving demonstrators or other visitors to the city center. Najaf residents would be allowed to drive, he said.
In a statement distributed in Najaf on Sunday, al-Sadr called on Iraqi forces to stop cooperating with America.
"You, the Iraqi army and police forces, don't walk alongside the occupiers, because they are your archenemy," the statement said.
Al-Sadr, who commands an enormous following among Iraq's majority Shiites and has close allies in the Shiite-dominated government, urged his followers not to attack fellow Iraqis but to turn all their efforts on American forces.
"God has ordered you to be patient in front of your enemy, and unify your efforts against them -- not against the sons of Iraq," it said.
Al-Sadr had reportedly ordered his militia to disarm and stay off the streets during the Baghdad crackdown, though he has nevertheless issued a series of sharp anti-American statements, demanding the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Sunday's statement was apparently issued in response 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, Col. Michael Garrett, with the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division, told reporters in Diwaniyah on Monday as American troops continued operations.
Four guards were detained at the office of a Shiite political party and American troops scoured two neighborhoods in the city's northern and eastern sections, police said. At least 24 suspects were detained and one civilian was killed, police said. U.S. officials had no immediate comment.
On Sunday, thousands of residents in Baghdad's largest Shiite slum, Sadr City, boarded buses and minivans bound for Najaf.
Iraqi flags flew from most houses and shops in Sadr City. Drivers and motorcyclists affixed them to their vehicles. Police escorted convoys of pickup trucks overflowing with young boys waving Iraqi flags, en route to Najaf.
Despite the curfews, violence persisted Monday. In southern Baghdad, a sniper killed a civilian and a policeman, and a mortar round killed one person and wounded two others, police said.
Police in Buhriz, about 35 miles north of Baghdad, said clashes broke out between unknown gunmen and al-Qaida fighters -- leaving 30 people injured.
U.S. forces captured 14 suspects in raids across Iraq on Monday, targeting al-Qaida in Iraq members and car bomb-makers, the military said in a statement.
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
---------------------------------- The duty of a patriot in this time and place is to ask questions, to demand answers, to understand where our nation is headed and why. If the answers you get do not suit you, or if they frighten you, or if they anger you, it is your duty as a patriot to dissent. Freedom does not begin with blind acceptance and with a flag. Freedom begins when you say 'No.'
posted on April 9, 2007 08:12:47 PM
Logan,
Your right the majority of Iraqi people want us out of their country.
Neo-cons here need to go on some Iraqi chat rooms and show their opposition to the Iraqis wanting our troops out.
Even if guys like Bear,Stone and classic can't speak the language they can always post their opposition photos. I am sure all the photos and hot air from LIAR_K would be well accepted.
posted on April 10, 2007 08:49:55 AM
No matter how many times you demorats count using you fingers and toes, one sect of fanatics in Baghdad
does not speak for the majority of Iraqi's. And this is the same sect that supported Saddam.
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.George S. Patton
posted on April 10, 2007 09:18:25 AMSunnis want Americans to stay in Iraq
The situation in Iraq has changed dramatically since the days of American invasion. Today more and more Iraqis see Americans as allies, not enemies.
Just a year ago, Sunnis were the driving force behind the calls for immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. (The Chronicle agreed not to identify the man and some other Iraqis interviewed for this story to protect their safety.) But since Feb. 22, the dramatic escalation in sectarian violence has given Sunnis an enemy to loathe more than the Americans and Iraqi police, who are mostly Shiite.
Sunnis say militias affiliated with Shiite political parties have infiltrated the police and are using their status to kidnap, torture and kill Sunni civilians. Shiite officials have denied the accusations.
The interim head of the Interior Ministry -- which has authority over police forces -- was a Shiite, and control of the agency is so controversial that the selection of a permanent minister has been postponed by the coalition government that took office Saturday.
"Calls by the Sunnis for the Americans to stay and protect them from the Shiites, and calls by the Shiites for the Americans to leave, is a complete reversal," said Joost Hiltermann, an expert on Iraq at the International Crisis Group in Amman , Jordan . "Psychologically, something is broken."
At the beginning of the war, when a vicious Sunni-driven insurgency was beginning to take hold, U.S. forces would have been relieved to hear such a vote of confidence. But today, the military is trying to replace U.S. units that patrol Baghdad 's streets with Iraqi police battalions in hope that this will allow U.S. troops to withdraw from the country.
The deep-seated Sunni distrust of Shiite police could present a difficulty for the U.S. plan to let the police take over in Baghdad , particularly in the volatile western neighborhoods where Sunnis and Shiites live side by side in the maze of narrow, dusty streets.
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If it's called common sense, why do so few Demomorons have it?
Do they not let you get current information in the second grade? Are you still using an abacus to do math?
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
---------------------------------- The duty of a patriot in this time and place is to ask questions, to demand answers, to understand where our nation is headed and why. If the answers you get do not suit you, or if they frighten you, or if they anger you, it is your duty as a patriot to dissent. Freedom does not begin with blind acceptance and with a flag. Freedom begins when you say 'No.'
Are YOU a Bunghole?