Hundreds of thousands of Shias draped themselves in Iraqi flags and marched peacefully through the streets of the holy city of Najaf yesterday, the fourth anniversary of Baghdad's fall to American forces.
The organisers claimed that one million to 1.5 million people took part, though police estimates gave a figure of less than a million.
The marchers were flanked by two cordons of police as they called for the Americans to leave. "Get out, get out occupier!" Some demonstrators strode along, trying to rip apart an American flag, while others marched across a rug made to resemble the Stars and Stripes that had been flung across the road.
Security was tight across Iraq. The streets of Baghdad were largely empty after authorities imposed a 24-hour ban on vehicles to prevent any insurgent attacks, especially car bombings. The government quickly reinstated the day as a holiday, rescinding its weekend order that April 9th would no longer be a day off.
The rally in Najaf, 160 kilometres south of Baghdad, was called by Moqtada al-Sadr, the powerful Shia cleric who a day earlier had ordered his militiamen to redouble their battle to oust American forces, and argued that Iraq's army and police should join him in defeating the "arch enemy". Leaflets fluttered through the breeze, reading: "Yes, Yes to Iraq" and "Yes, Yes to Muqtada. Occupiers should leave Iraq."
"The enemy that is occupying our country is now targeting the dignity of the Iraqi people," said Nassar al-Rubaie, head of Sheikh al-Sadr's bloc in parliament, as he marched. "After four years of occupation, we have hundreds of thousands of people dead and wounded."
A senior official in Mr al-Sadr's organisation in Najaf, Salah al-Obaydi, called the rally a "call for liberation". "We're hoping that by next year's anniversary, we will be an independent and liberated Iraq with full sovereignty," he said.
Sheikh al-Sadr did not attend the demonstration, and has not appeared in public for months. US officials say he left Iraq for Iran after the start of a Baghdad security crackdown on February 14th, but his followers say he is in Iraq.
Iraqi soldiers in uniform joined the crowd, which was led by at least a dozen turbaned clerics, including one Sunni. The demonstration lasted about three hours. Ambulances moved slowly along with the marchers, poised to help if violence or stampedes broke out.
Col Steven Boylan, an aide to the commander of US forces in Iraq, praised the peaceful nature of the demonstration, saying Iraqis "could not have done this four years ago".
"This is the right to assemble, the right to free speech - they didn't have that under the former regime," he said. In a statement al-Sadr called on Iraqi forces to stop co-operating with the US.