Thousands join anti-US rally
Angry Iraqi crowds demand troops leave
BAGHDAD: Thousands of supporters of volatile Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr gathered in Baghdad yesterday for a “million-strong” march to demand the ouster of US troops, putting the protesthit capital on edge.
The march has rattled the separate, months-old protest movement that has gripped the capital and the Shiamajority south since October, demanding a government overhaul, early elections and more accountability.
In the early hours of yesterday, thousands of men, women and children of all ages massed under grey skies in the
Jadiriyah district of east Baghdad.
“Get out, get out, occupier!” some shouted, while others chanted, “Yes to sovereignty!”
The American military presence has been a hot-button issue in Iraq since a US drone strike killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis outside Baghdad airport on January 3.
Two days later, parliament voted for all foreign troops — including some 5,200 US personnel — to leave the country.
The vote was non-binding and a senior US official said on Thursday that Washington had yet to open talks with Baghdad on a troop pullout.
“There has not been any real engagement,” said ambassador James Jeffrey, the US special envoy for Syria and the coalition against the Islamic State group.
But he added that operations against the jihadists had been on hold since the drone strike, which triggered retaliatory Iranian missile strikes targeting US troops in Iraq.
Long opposed to the US troop presence, Mr Sadr seized on the public anger over the drone strike to call “a million-strong, peaceful, unified demonstration to condemn the American presence and its violations”.
Several pro-Iran factions from the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force, usually rivals of Sadr, backed his call and pledged to join.
Mr Sadr battled US forces at the head of his Mehdi Army militia after the US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
He later branded himself a reformist and backed the anti-government protests when they erupted in October.
The firebrand cleric controls parliament’s largest bloc and his followers hold top ministerial positions. The 46-year-old is a notoriously fickle politician, known for switching alliances quickly.
Harith Hasan of the Carnegie Middle East Centre said Mr Sadr was trying to sustain his “multiple identities” by backing various protests.
“On the one hand, [he seeks to] position himself as the leader of a reform movement, as a populist, as anti-establishment,” Mr Hasan said.
“On the other hand, he also wants to sustain his image as the leader of the resistance to the ‘American occupation,’” partly to win favour with Iran.