Iraqis protest US security deal

07/06/2008| IslamWeb

Thousands of Iraqis have taken to the streets in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, denouncing a proposed deal that would keep US troops in Iraq beyond 2008.

Protesters set fire to a US flag and to an effigy of George Bush, the US president, following Friday prayers.

 

The protests followed a call by Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia leader, to reject a US-proposed "security alliance" that is reported would enable US troops to permanently occupy bases in Iraq.

 

Banners at the protest read: "The agreement with the Americans is an act of war against the Iraqi people."

 

 

Sattah al-Batat, who led Friday's prayers, told worshippers the agreement "would give full authority to the Americans as well as the right to do whatever they want".

 

"As long as Moqtada Sadr rejects the agreement, it will not be signed" by the government, Batat told worshippers.

 

'Different vision'

 

Bush and Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, have agreed in principle in November to sign the Status of Forces Agreement by the end of July.

 

But negotiations appeared to have stalled earlier in the week as Iraq has a "different vision" from the US over the plan, according to Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman.

 

Al-Sadr has vowed to keep up a campaign of protest to pressure the government to relinquish the agreement.

 

Also on Friday, two leaders of "special groups" - a term used by the US military to describe Shia fighters who have defied al-Sadr's ceasefire - have surrendered to US forces, according to a US military statement.

 

The two men surrendered when US forces raided their homes, south of Baghdad.

 

One of those who surrendered is alleged to have ordered attacks on US troops, directed the kidnapping of Iraqis and helped smuggle Iranian weapons into Iraq, according to the US military statement.

 

The arrests and the Sadr City demonstrations came on the eve of al-Maliki's trip to Iran, the prime minister's second such visit in a year.

 

 

 

 PHOTO CAPTION:

Iraqi protestors

Al-Jazeera