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Thousands take to Iraqi streets to protest "terrorism"
Wed Dec 10,11:27 AM ET Add Mideast - AFP to My Yahoo!
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Thousands of Iraqis, some watched over by US Apache helicopters, demonstrated in Baghdad and other cities to condemn "terrorism" in their country.
AFP Photo
More than 200 protesters from the Iraqi National Congress and other political parties, women's groups and sheikhs in traditional dress gathered near the National Theatre in Baghdad and marched to a central Baghdad hotel.
"This is the national campaign against terrorism and sabotage," said Abo Thaer, 55, a member of the Iraqi Communist Party. His party members turned out with giant red flags bearing the hammer and sickle.
Participants Wednesday said the rallies marked International Human Rights Day.
A similar protest last Friday in the capital attracted about 1,000 Iraqis.
American-led occupying forces who toppled dictator Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) in April are battling daily attacks by insurgents whom they regularly brand terrorists.
On Monday a suicide car bomber wounded 58 US soldiers at their base near the northern capital of Mosul while in Baghdad a bomb killed three worshippers at a Sunni mosque.
"Terrorism .... will delay the process of rebuilding," said Eklass Khudhir, 30, one of four women holding a banner from the Iraqi Women's Organization.
She said it was their first protest against terrorism.
Hussein al-Musaya, a former Iraqi exile who helped organize the rally, said numerous political parties had come together to state their opposition to terorism.
"It's also a message of thanks to the coalition force for liberating Iraq (news - web sites) from the dictator," said Musaya, an official with the Liberal Republic Iraqi Party.
"We will not allow the fascists to come back," added Farook al-Shamari, 63.
"I don't belong to any party but I am against terrorism and fascism. We lived under the aggression of fascism for 40 years," he said.
He said he lost his teaching job and was jailed for six months for refusing to join the ruling Baath party in 1979, the year Saddam Hussein gained control of the country.
Qutaiba Khalid, and his wife Taghreed Jasin, both 28, said they were representing students as well as the Communist Party.
With a red neckerchief and purple-tinted sunglasses, Khalid said violence "will endanger the lives of innocent people and it will delay the departure of the occupying force."
American helicopters flew above the protesters and at least seven Iraqi police cars were stationed nearby. Several US soldiers watched from a discreet distance away.
More than 2,500 protesters marched in the holy Shiite cities of Najaf and Karbala south of Baghdad. They asked for the transfer of security from the coalition to Iraqis.
A banner carried by the demonstrators in Najaf read, "Killing children is not resistance."
Another said: "Saddam Hussein and (Osama) bin Laden are two sides of the same coin."
In the Sunni town of Ramadi west of Baghdad, a hotbed of anti-US sentiment, about 100 people protested after a call by the local council.
They gathered under the protection of American troops while a counter-demonstration of about 70 people carrying photos of the Koran and Mecca threw stones at the Americans. Iraqi police dispersed them.
Other demonstrations also took place in Baqubah just north of Baghdad, and at Suleimaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Wed Dec 10,11:27 AM ET Add Mideast - AFP to My Yahoo!
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Thousands of Iraqis, some watched over by US Apache helicopters, demonstrated in Baghdad and other cities to condemn "terrorism" in their country.
AFP Photo
More than 200 protesters from the Iraqi National Congress and other political parties, women's groups and sheikhs in traditional dress gathered near the National Theatre in Baghdad and marched to a central Baghdad hotel.
"This is the national campaign against terrorism and sabotage," said Abo Thaer, 55, a member of the Iraqi Communist Party. His party members turned out with giant red flags bearing the hammer and sickle.
Participants Wednesday said the rallies marked International Human Rights Day.
A similar protest last Friday in the capital attracted about 1,000 Iraqis.
American-led occupying forces who toppled dictator Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) in April are battling daily attacks by insurgents whom they regularly brand terrorists.
On Monday a suicide car bomber wounded 58 US soldiers at their base near the northern capital of Mosul while in Baghdad a bomb killed three worshippers at a Sunni mosque.
"Terrorism .... will delay the process of rebuilding," said Eklass Khudhir, 30, one of four women holding a banner from the Iraqi Women's Organization.
She said it was their first protest against terrorism.
Hussein al-Musaya, a former Iraqi exile who helped organize the rally, said numerous political parties had come together to state their opposition to terorism.
"It's also a message of thanks to the coalition force for liberating Iraq (news - web sites) from the dictator," said Musaya, an official with the Liberal Republic Iraqi Party.
"We will not allow the fascists to come back," added Farook al-Shamari, 63.
"I don't belong to any party but I am against terrorism and fascism. We lived under the aggression of fascism for 40 years," he said.
He said he lost his teaching job and was jailed for six months for refusing to join the ruling Baath party in 1979, the year Saddam Hussein gained control of the country.
Qutaiba Khalid, and his wife Taghreed Jasin, both 28, said they were representing students as well as the Communist Party.
With a red neckerchief and purple-tinted sunglasses, Khalid said violence "will endanger the lives of innocent people and it will delay the departure of the occupying force."
American helicopters flew above the protesters and at least seven Iraqi police cars were stationed nearby. Several US soldiers watched from a discreet distance away.
More than 2,500 protesters marched in the holy Shiite cities of Najaf and Karbala south of Baghdad. They asked for the transfer of security from the coalition to Iraqis.
A banner carried by the demonstrators in Najaf read, "Killing children is not resistance."
Another said: "Saddam Hussein and (Osama) bin Laden are two sides of the same coin."
In the Sunni town of Ramadi west of Baghdad, a hotbed of anti-US sentiment, about 100 people protested after a call by the local council.
They gathered under the protection of American troops while a counter-demonstration of about 70 people carrying photos of the Koran and Mecca threw stones at the Americans. Iraqi police dispersed them.
Other demonstrations also took place in Baqubah just north of Baghdad, and at Suleimaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan.
From
this article the estimates are between 5,000 and 10,000 people protested in Baghdad.
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