Iraq: 1000s protest peacefully against U.S.

posted by ewing2001 on Monday August 25, @08:27PM

Shiite Muslims in Baghdad protest weekend violence

AP/Maryland Sunspot -Tuesday August 26, 2003

Thousands of Shiite Muslims protested peacefully last night outside the headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition in Baghdad, alleging the occupation force was lax on security and did too little to stop a weekend of ethnic bloodshed in the north and the bombing at the house of an important Muslim Shiite cleric in the south.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said a soldier died of a nonhostile gunshot wound, bringing the number of soldiers killed since major combat was declared over to 138. A total of 276 soldiers have died in combat or by accident since the war began March 20.

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The Baghdad protest moved after about an hour to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan office in Baghdad. The protesters alleged that the Kurdish organization started the fighting Friday night in Tuz Kharmato and continued attacks on Turkmen tribesmen the next day in Kirkuk, 115 miles north of Baghdad. Eleven people died.

The protesters dispersed quietly ahead of the 11 p.m. Baghdad curfew.

The Baghdad protesters, mainly from the Sadr City slum, had sided with the Turkmen, also Shiites. A PUK spokesman in Baghdad told the Associated Press that the violence was the work of sympathizers of Saddam Hussein's who are trying to complicate the tense security situation by adding the specter of ethnic and religious violence to the mix. Kurds are predominantly Sunni Muslims.

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Arab Times -26th Aug 2003

More than 3,000 Shiite Muslims took to the streets of Baghdad outside the headquarters of the US-named governing council to protest the bombing and recent ethnic clashes chanting, "No to America! No to Saddam!"

Indymedia Baghdad, recently opened as almuajaha.com, didn't bring an update about the protests yet

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