Thousands of people have gathered in Baghdad to protest against the the US’ continued presence in the country, six years to the day after the capital fell to American troops.
The demonstrators waved banners and carried pictures of al-Sadr, calling for an end to the US occupation of Iraq.
Abdel Wahab Al-Qassab from the Strategic Studies Centre in Doha, Qatar, which researches political and military strategies, said that Iraqi public opinion is overwhelmingly in favour of US forces leaving the country.
Supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr rallied on Thursday in Firdous Square, where the statue of then-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was pulled down on April 9, 2003.
Meanwhile an Iraqi lawmaker alleges that ‘America’ are behind the recent bomb blasts in Iraq basing his claims on the fact that the US has access to Iraq’s security and intelligence files.
Maha al-Dori, a member of Sadr fraction in the Iraqi parliament said that “the occupiers are causing disarray in Iraq with aim of at taking control over the country’s affairs.”
Bomb explosions have left tens of Iraqis dead and wounded over the past few weeks. The escalated violence followed a period of relative calm in late 2008, after an agreement between Washington and Baghdad set a deadline for the withdrawal of US troops.
Press/Al Jazeera
