To cries of "Death to America," thousands of Iraqis held protests throughout the capital today in a third straight day of anger over US and British air strikes.
About 27,000 people took part in four separate demonstrations in the Baghdad suburbs of Saddam City, Al-Adhamiya and Ubaidy and the downtown area of Al-Wiyah to protest at Friday's raids which Iraq said killed three people and wounded 30.
The crowd in Saddam City cried "Death to America" and set fire to US and Israeli flags, as they had done in protests around the country organised over the previous two days by the ruling Baath party.
Yesterday Iraq said it fired missiles at US and British warplanes policing a "no-fly" zone over the south of the country, in defiance of the strikes aimed at knocking out radar posts used to co-ordinate surface-to-air missiles.
The United States and Britain said they bombed five military targets in the raids around Baghdad to protect their pilots patrolling air exclusion zones set up after the 1991 Gulf War.
Iraq does not recognise the zones, which are not specifically authorised by the United Nations, and regularly fires on the US and British planes.
AFP