A suicide bomber killed 12 people in an Iraqi mosque today while thousands of followers of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr demonstrated in Baghdad after parliament passed a pact allowing US troops to remain through 2011.
Some 9,000 people protested in Baghdad's Shia slum of Sadr City after Friday prayers, burning a US flag and holding anti-agreement banners. About 2,500 people held a similar rally in the southern city of Basra.
"I express my condolences to the Iraqi people on this grave occasion, in which they are harmed by the ... pact of shame and degradation," Sadr, whose militia has fought US troops many times, said in a statement read to followers on his behalf.
Sadr instructed his followers to wear black to mourn the passage of the deal, under which US troops will withdraw from Iraqi towns and cities by mid-2009, and leave the country by the end of 2011.
Earlier today, a suicide bomber wearing an explosives-packed vest killed 12 people and wounded 17 others inside a Shia mosque visited mainly by Sadr supporters 60 km south of Baghdad, police said.
The US military said the bomber killed eight people and wounded 15 others as they queued outside the mosque to enter for Friday prayers.
UN officials say such attacks are aimed at provoking renewed sectarian fighting between minority Sunni Arabs, once affiliated with al-Qaeda, and the majority Shias who are now in charge of Iraq.
Sadrist politicians opposed the security deal with the United States, banging desks and chanting slogans during the parliamentary session that passed it yesterday.
They consider the US military presence, in place since the 2003 invasion and the toppling of Saddam Hussein, an occupation and want an immediate withdrawal.
The deal curbs US military powers to arrest Iraqis and conduct operations, shifting greater responsibility onto Iraq's security forces to keep the peace. Violence is at four-year lows, but car bombings and suicide blasts are still common.
Under the security pact, the US will no longer be able to hold Iraqi suspects detained during the insurgency and around 16,000 mainly Sunni Arab prisoners will have to be handed over to Iraqi authorities or released.
Human rights group Amnesty International said thousands could face torture or possibly execution as a result as the pact provided no safeguards for prisoner rights.
Reuters