Demonstrators hold Iraqi flags as they
march during an anti-U.S. protest called by fiery cleric Moqtada al-Sadr
in Najaf, marking the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad April 9,
2007. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
BAGHDAD, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Shiites on Monday begun demonstrations
in the southern holy cities of Kufa and Najaf to protest against the United
States on the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.
Crowds of people, men, women and children holding
flags and anti-U.S. banners gathered in Najaf City and nearby town of Kufa.
The rally initially begun in Kufa where thousands
protestors riding buses and cars poured into Najaf, while the road to the north
between Baghdad and Najaf was packed with hundreds of vehicles crammed with
passengers waving Iraqi flags and chanting religious and anti-U.S. slogans.
"No, no, no to America," and followed by "Muqtada,
yes, yes, yes" they chanted.
In Baghdad's Shiite bastion of Sadr City Iraqi flags
were being flown from homes, shops and vehicles, while police escorted convoys
of pickup trucks carrying youths waving flags.
On Sunday, Sadr office issued a statement urging Iraqis to
come out in full force on Monday to mark the day U.S. forces took Baghdad in
2003.
"The faithful should participate in a demonstration
in Najaf on April 9, demanding that the occupiers withdraw form our lands,"
Shiite radical leader Muqtada Sadr said in his statement. "They should carry or
wear Iraqi flags."
The government announced a 24-hour vehicle ban which
took effect in Baghdad at 5 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Monday, Brigadier Qassim
Moussawi, a U.S.-Iraqi security operation spokesman, said on Sunday.
"There will be protests marking the fourth
anniversary. We don't want to give the terrorists a chance to use this
opportunity," he said.
The U.S. military blamed Sadr, who leads the Mehdi
Army militia for fuelling sectarian violence with Sunni Muslims. It is said that
Sadr is now in the neighboring Iran, but his aides denied, saying that their
leader is in Iraq and has not fled the country to escape the security crackdown.
Demonstrators chant slogans during an
anti-U.S. protest called by fiery cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Najaf, marking
the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad April 9, 2007. Baghdad was
under curfew on Monday on the fourth anniversary of the fall of the
capital to U.S. forces.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo
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WASHINGTON, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Ali A Allawi, senior
adviser to the prime minister of Iraq and once served as Iraq's trade, defense
and finance minister at different times, blasted U.S. failures in Iraq in his
500-page book "The Occupation of Iraq," the AP reported Sunday.
"The corroded and corrupt state of Saddam was
replaced by the corroded, inefficient, incompetent and corrupt state of the new
order," Allawi concluded in the book published by Yale University Press.
Allawi asserted that the United States committed
blunders such as disbanding Iraq's army and purging tens of thousands of members
of toppled President Saddam Hussein's Baath party, with little consultation with
the Iraqis. Full story
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