Iraqi Shias denounce security pact with US
Large crowds of Shias yesterday denounced the security pact Baghdad is negotiating with Washington for a long-term US military presence in violence-wracked Iraq.
In Baghdad's Sadr City, the bastion of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Shia men, women and children shouted anti-American slogans as they demonstrated against the security deal after the weekly Friday prayers.
"No, no to colonisation! Out, out you occupier!" the crowd shouted in the centre of Sadr City where fierce battles raged in March and April between Shia militants and US forces in which hundreds of people were killed.
The fighting ended with a truce on May 10.
Washington and Baghdad are currently negotiating a security pact on the long-term foreign troop levels in Iraq.
Last November US President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki agreed to sign the pact by July 31 this year.
However the country's political factions have strongly opposed the agreement, saying it would put Iraq on the path of "slavery."
On Thursday Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari tried to dispel such fears by saying that the agreement would not compromise Iraqi sovereignty.
He said if the two countries failed to sign the deal then Iraq may have to ask for the renewal of the UN mandate which expires in December 2008 or sign a separate bilateral deal with Washington.
The UN mandate is the legal basis for the presence of US-led foreign forces in the country.
Friday's protests against the security agreement reverberated across all Shia regions of Iraq.
In the central town of Kufa, protesters chanted anti-US and anti-Israel slogans.
"No to America! No to Israel! We reject signing the agreement with the occupation," shouted devotees.
In the city of Karbala, an aide of revered Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urged Baghdadto refrain from signing a deal that would compromise national interests.
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