Supporters of cleric demand US military pullout

Marking the two-year anniversary since US troops took control of Baghdad and toppled Saddam Hussein’s statue, supporters of a militant Shiite cleric filled the capital’s streets today and demanded that their American invaders go home, shouting “No! No, to Satan!”

About 5,000 protesters held a similar demonstration in the Sunni triangle city of Ramadi, reflecting a growing impatience with US-led forces trying to slowly hand over control to an infant Iraqi government.

“I do not accept having occupation forces in my country,” said 35-year-old protester Ali Feleih Hassan. ”No one accepts this. I want them out. They have been here for two years, and now they have to set a timetable for their withdrawal.”

US President George Bush has said he will not pull troops out of Iraq until the security situation has improved.

The protest in Baghdad’s famous Firdos Square was the largest anti-American demonstration since the US-led invasion. Tens of thousands spilled into the streets, waving Iraqi flags and climbing on to an abstract sculpture said to represent freedom and built on the spot where Saddam’s statue once stood.

Still, the group was far less than the one million called for by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The protest marked a return to the limelight for al-Sadr, who had been relatively quiet since his Mahdi Army militiamen signed truces last year with US-led forces. Officials said the cleric did not attend because of security concerns. He has stayed close to his home in the holy city of Najaf since the US-led assault on his militia in August 2004.

No major violence was reported during the demonstration, which the Iraqi Interior Ministry agreed to protect. US soldiers kept watch from behind concrete-and-barbed wire barriers, while gunmen manned surrounding rooftops.

Mahdi Army militiamen conducted body searches of people entering the demonstration area as Iraqi policemen stood to the side.

Protesters burned the US flag as well as cardboard cut-outs of President Bush and Saddam. Three effigies representing Saddam, Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair – all handcuffed and dressed in red Iraqi prison jumpsuits that signified they had been condemned to death – were stood on a pedestal, then symbolically toppled like the Saddam statue two years before.

Others acted out reports of prison abuse at the hands of US soldiers. Photos released last year showing US soldiers piling naked inmates in a pyramid at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison – and similar reports that followed – have tarnished the military’s reputation both here and around the world.

“Force the occupation to leave from our country,” one banner read in English.

The Shiite protesters called for a jailed Saddam to face justice, holding up framed photos of al-Sadr’s father, a prominent cleric who was executed by the ousted Iraqi leader.

Al-Sadr – whose supporters are largely impoverished, young Shiites – was once wanted by US forces after he urged his militia to fight American troops. Despite his popularity in some parts of Iraqi society, he has fewer followers than Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shiite cleric in the country.

Shiites make up 60% of Iraq’s 26 million but were targeted under Saddam. Thousands were killed by Iraqi security forces.

They have risen to power in Iraq’s new interim government, which named Shiite Arab Ibrahim al-Jaafari as its prime minister on Thursday. Al-Jaafari was one of Saddam’s most outspoken critics, and has close ties to neighbouring Iran.

Sunni Muslim clerics also called on their followers to protest today, and a large crowd gathered in the central city of Ramadi, a Sunni stronghold. Iraq’s Sunni minority was dominant under Saddam and is believed to make up the backbone of the country’s insurgency.

During his Friday morning sermon in the capital, the head of an influential Sunni group accused coalition forces of “killing the Iraqi people daily”.

“We demand that the occupation troops withdraw from Iraq. We don’t want them to do it immediately, but we want them to set a timetable for their withdrawal,” said Sheik Harith al-Dahri, whose Association of Muslim Scholars is believed to have ties to Iraq’s insurgents.