BAGHDAD (AFP) - Seven minutes of "No to America" and then they left, ducking for shade. That was the extent of the protest by fewer than 200 Shiite radicals after Friday prayers in Baghdad's anti-US enclave of Sadr City.
The promising posters pasted on the walls of the sprawling shanty district in the east of the Iraqi capital called on supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr to "peacefully reject and condemn" the US occupation.
Perhaps chalk up the muted participation to Baghdad's intense midday heat and also the Muslim month of Ramadan, a demanding period of dawn-to-dusk fasting that saps the strength of even the fiercest Sadr faithful.
But after a speech by imam Said Abdul Satar al-Battat -- a mixture of Koranic prayer and incantations railing against the evils of America -- fewer than 200 people crowded around for the usual burning of the American flag. "No to America! No to the devil," they shouted. "We are with you, Moqtada, to liberate Iraq!"
As was the case after prayers on Friday last week, dozens of Sadr's followers also signed blood oaths to continue their fight against US forces in Iraq.
More than a week ago Sadr ordered a halt to armed operations by his 60,000-strong Mahdi Army militia, blamed by Washington for some of the worst sectarian killings of Sunni Arabs in the war-torn country. Sadr's decision came after he promised earlier last month to dismantle the once feared militia if a planned security pact between Baghdad and Washington provides for the withdrawal of US troops.
Sadr, believed to be hiding in Iran, has always insisted that US troops must leave immediately.
The protestors shouted: "Whoever has signed is not one of us."
Sadr's renewal of a year-long freeze on attacks on rival armed groups and US forces is no sign of weakness insist Sadr supporters.
"No, we're still resistance," stressed Imad Khlef, 32, a mechanic.
"But this is not an armed resistance. We are a cultural resistance," chimed in Nasif Jassim, 41, an engineer, echoing Sadr's demands that the Mahdi Army transform itself into a cultural and religious organisation.
Trader Ahmad al-Iraki, 28, said: "We are against this agreement, it is a red line for us. We're awaiting (further) orders from Moqtada," he said. |