Clashes in Iraq as people protest US occupation

NAJAF: Thousands of Shias, many waving Islam’s holy book over their heads, protested against the US-led occupation in Iraq on Friday, setting off clashes in at least one city as they answered a call by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to paint Israeli and American flags on the ground and stomp on them. The call was made a day after US and Iraqi forces detained 13 al-Sadr supporters during a raid on a Shia mosque in Mahmoudiya. Iraqi troops confiscated weapons from the mosque. “From this platform, we warn the government not to fight the al-Sadr movement because all the tyrants of the world could not beat it,” said Hazim al-Araji, the imam of a mosque in Kufa during the Friday sermon. “We say to the government do not be a tyrant like Saddam or (former interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad) Allawi.” In both Najaf and nearby Kufa, al-Sadr followers painted American and Israeli flags on most streets near mosques before stepping on them. agencies

Home | National