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Iraqis
Protest U.S. Presence, Old Guards in Iraq
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Iraqis
wave by the Iraqi flag and shout slogans against the U.S.
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BAGHDAD,
April 16 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Realizing that they
escaped from a dictator iron grip to a U.S. occupation grip, scores of
Iraqis shouted their rejection of the U.S. military presence in front
of American marines deployed around Baghdad's Palestine Hotel and in
An-Najaf Wednesday, April 16.
"We
want real freedom…The Iraqi people themselves must choose their
rulers," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted one of the angry
demonstrators as saying.
In
the southern Iraqi city of An-Najaf, some 3,000 people took to the
streets to demonstrate support for the center of Shiite religious
learning and call on all Shiite groups to stand shoulder to shoulder
in the face of the U.S.-led occupation, an AFP reporter said.
The
marchers carried portraits of Ayatollah Ali Sistani, foremost Shiite
religious authority in An-Najaf, of Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, a senior
religious leader assassinated in 1999, ostensibly by the deposed
regime of Saddam Hussein, and of Sadr's son Muqtada.
"The
demonstration is designed to express support for the religious school
of An-Najaf and denounce the plots hatched against it," the imam
of Samawa, Sheikh Kadhem al-Addawi, told the marchers.
In
Basra, Iraqis came in droves to protest the presence of the U.K.
troops and the setting-up of a new pro-U.S. civil administration in
Iraq’s second largest city, Al-Jazeera reported.
Demonstrators
Occupy British Airways In Athens
In
Athens, around 100 anti-war protesters occupied the offices of British
Airways in Athens on Wednesday morning in a protest against the
presence in the Greek capital of British Prime Minister Tony Blair,
AFP said.
Blair
was here for an informal summit of European Union leaders, the first
since the fall of the Iraqi regime,
ahead of the signing of the accession treaties of the EU's 10
members-in-waiting.
The
demonstrators prevented employees from entering the airline's offices
in the suburbs and unfurled a banner denouncing Britain's involvement
in the U.S. intervention in Iraq.
Demonstrators,
as well as the main Greek trades union confederation GSEE, have
announced mass demonstrations for Wednesday to protest against the
"undesirable" presence of Blair and his Italian and Spanish
counterparts.
More
than 10,000 police have been mobilised to ensure security and more
than half the city has been barred to traffic and demonstrators.
Riot
police also tried to disperse demonstrators during clashes in an
anti-war demonstration outside the Greek Parliament.
Egyptian
Students Ready For Martyrdom
In
Cairo, some 300 students gathered Wednesday on the campus of Cairo
University saying they were ready to carry out martyrdom operations
against Americans and U.S. interests.
The
students, their heads covered with Palestinian scarves, marched around
the university buildings shouting "With our blood, with our
souls, we will defend Islam".
Some
of the students wore green headbands inscribed with the word
"martyr" in Arabic.
"This
is the first time that we have organized a demonstration on behalf of
both Iraq and Palestine," said Mohammed Abdullah, one of the
organizers. "We say to the United States that we are ready to
carry out martyrdom operations."
The
demonstrators distributed a leaflet saying "the martyrs of the
future are ready" and demanding that the United States
"cease its attacks against Arab and Islamic countries" or
face the consequences.
Emergency
laws, in force almost continuously since 1967 in Egypt, ban public
protests. However, they are tolerated on university campuses and in
mosque compounds.
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