Baghdad, Iraq – 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 3 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 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 has 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 workday. 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. Twenty-five 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.
Cars were banned from Najaf for 24 hours starting from 8 p.m. Sunday.
