IRAQ:Wrapped in the Iraqi flag and chanting anti-American slogans, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shia snaked into the holy city Najaf yesterday for a protest rally to mark the fourth anniversary of the toppling of Saddam Hussein and to demand the ejection from Iraq of US and British troops.
The huge procession of mainly men and young boys had braved the roads from Baghdad - and towns across southern Iraq - to march from the holy city of Kufa to Najaf, one of Shia Islam's most sacred sites. Flanked by hundreds of Iraqi police, they shouted "Yes! Yes! Iraq. No! No! America" amid a sea of banners and Iraqi flags. "We were liberated from Saddam. Now we need to be liberated again," read one placard. "Stop the suffering, Americans leave now," demanded another.
The march was a show of strength by the powerful Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who had called for a peaceful mass protest to express opposition to "Iraq's occupiers". Ali Hussein, a member of Mr Sadr's al-Mahdi militia from Baghdad, said that about 1-1½ million supporters of Mr Sadr had taken part, though police estimates gave a figure of less than a million.
"The demonstration was peaceful and we oppose the occupation because the only solution for Iraq and Baghdad is withdrawal of the Americans," said Mr Hussein as he stood outside the golden-domed Shrine of Imam Ali.
Mr Sadr has not been seen for months and is widely believed to have fled to Iran to avoid the US-Iraqi security crackdown, which officially began on February 14th. The fiery young cleric had won praise from Iraqi leaders for ordering his Mahdi militia to lie low during the operations. But in his absence there were reports that both his militia and his political wing in parliament were fragmenting.
This week Mahdi fighters engaged in fierce clashes with US and Iraqi troops in the southern city of Diwaniyah. In an apparent bid to shore up his movement, Mr Sadr broke his silence two weeks ago with a series of sharp anti-American proclamations, culminating in a statement on Sunday that urged his fighters to intensify their struggle to oust American forces, and for Iraq's army and police to join the effort to defeat the "archenemy".
Despite the hopes of many of his supporters, Mr Sadr failed to appear again yesterday. But his opponents both in Iraq and Washington were left in no doubt of the cleric's continued grass-roots support among young Iraqi Shia.
Senior aides to Mr Sadr pointed to a number of Sunni clerics at the head of yesterday's parade as evidence that the march was "national and not sectarian". Orders had gone out for marchers to avoid carrying pictures or flags that could inflame religious passions.
Hazim al-Araji, Mr Sadr's representative in the Baghdad district of Khadimiya, said: "There are people here from all different parties and sects. We are all carrying the national flag, which is a symbol of unity."
Despite the hostile sentiment of yesterday's protest, US commanders in Iraq appeared relaxed. Lieut Col Steven Boylan, a US military spokesman, said the demonstration had been well-organised and peaceful. "This is the right to assemble, the right to free speech, they didn't have that under the former regime," he said. "This is progress, there's no two ways about it."
Meanwhile, in Baghdad and the rest of Iraq there were no celebrations to mark four years since the overthrow of Saddam. In the capital the government slapped a city-wide ban on vehicles, meaning most residents stayed indoors, many watching the events from Najaf on television.