About 1 000 Iraqis, mostly Shiite Muslims, demonstrated in central Baghdad on Friday to condemn terrorism and military strikes against Iraqis and the United States ”liberation” forces.
Dozens of children aged five to 10 carrying flowers led the protest under white banners painted in red letters declaring ”Children innocent, victims of terrorism” and ”Terrorism blocks any future for children”.
Organiser Sabih Hassan, head of a child protection association set up since the springtime US-led invasion, said they had all ”become orphans because of terrorism”.
Hassan said the march was against ”all operations, including those targeting Americans”.
”Our children have a vital need for peace and security.”
As the protest went on, four Iraqis and a US soldier died and 15 Iraqis were wounded when a homemade bomb exploded as an American convoy drove through a crowded shopping street in Baghdad.
The ”Iraqi democratic trend”, set up after the war by tribes in the Shiite areas of Kerbala and Babel, in central Iraq, organised the demonstration, said general secretary Aziz al-Yassiri.
Sheikh Abdul Jalil Cherhani (55), a leading member of the group, said: ”We are against those who kill Iraqis, those who fight the Americans who liberated the country.”
Iraq’s majority Shiite community suffered some of the worst repression from the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein, which put down a Shiite rebellion at the loss of thousands of lives in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War. — Sapa-AFP