Suicide bombs mark Iraq’s sixth anniversary of war

AMERICAN flags were set on fire yesterday to chants of “no for occupation” as followers of an anti-US Shi’ite cleric marked the sixth anniversary of the Iraq war.

In five other Iraqi cities, supporters of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr also marched or stood in protest after prayers to demand the release of their allies detained at Iraqi and US-run prisons.

The protests came as a suicide bomber in Fallujah killed an Iraqi police officer and five others, including civilians, in an attempted attack on the home of the local leader of Sunni security volunteers who turned against al-Qaida.

The victims were killed trying to stop a suicide bomber from reaching the home of Saadoun al-Eifan, who runs the local branch of the Sunni volunteer group the Sons of Iraq.

Also, two roadside bombs exploded within 10 minutes of one another after sundown yesterday, wounding four policemen and three civilians in Baghdad’s Karradah district, police said.

A police colonel and his aide were wounded in a bombing yesterday in Tikrit, police said.

In the capital, al-Sadr aide Sheik Haidar al-Jabiri urged supporters to join an April 9 march to protest the six-year anniversary of Americans taking over the city.

He told worshippers gathered in Baghdad’s Shi’ite district of Sadr City: “Sayed Muqtada invites you to march by the millions on April 9, the anniversary of the cruel occupation.”

Demonstrators responded by lifting a banner reading: “To the Iraqi government, when you will be trustful and release our detainee sons?”

“No, no for occupation. Yes, yes for liberation. Yes, yes for Iraq,” the demonstrators chanted.