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Iraqi protesters rally against occupation amid Basra mourning
Angry demonstrators in Basra claimed yesterday that British forces were responsible for the deaths of 73 people, including 20 children, killed by suicide bombers in the city.
Hundreds of followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical cleric who has led an uprising of impoverished Shia Muslims, said British soldiers carried out Wednesday's atrocities or allowed them to happen.
Abdul Satar al-Bahadli, Sadr's spokesman in the Shia city, brandished pieces of metal which he said were parts of an American missile aimed at one of the police stations targeted by the bombers. "Look it is written here - 'Made in the USA'," he said, as youths clamoured to see. However, the pieces appeared to be engine parts from one of the Chevrolets used in Wednesday's five suicide attacks.
Jawad Kazem, 24, a fitness instructor, said: "The coalition troops did it." He explained that there was widespread talk of a British convoy that passed by the al-Saudia police station minutes before the explosion there.
Nizar Hissan, 47, a tailor in the central market, said: "It is an ugly crime and I blame the British because we were supposed to be under their protection." In a barber shop, Alaa Abed Ali, 20, said the British were only partly responsible.
"I blame the Iraqi people for not being united against those that want to harm them and the police are weak and useless," he said. "As far as the coalition is concerned, I see no role for them because they really do not care about us."
Several policemen took part in the demonstration and said they would side with the populist cleric's gunmen if they clashed with British troops again.
Protesters carried a banner that read: "The Iraqi people say that al-Qa'eda is innocent from the Basra events and the guilty one is the criminal Blair." American, British and Iraqi officials have said that fundamentalists linked to al-Qa'eda or Sunni terrorists hoping to provoke sectarian violence were responsible.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/23/wirq123.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/04/23/ixnewstop.html
BAGHDAD -- Hundreds of followers of an influential Shi'ite Muslim leader demonstrated yesterday in the southern city of Basra as residents mourned the deaths of 73 people killed in five car bombings a day earlier.
The protesters, who support Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, shouted anti-foreign slogans near the funerals of two children who died in the suicide attacks, and they called for British troops to leave the city, according to television footage of the event. The death toll, which includes 20 children, rose overnight as some of the injured died.
US officials, who accused Sadr's forces of exploiting public grief for political purposes, contrasted the angry demonstration with the circumspect retreat of British troops from the scene.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2004/04/23/iraqi_protesters_rally_amid_basra_mourning/
Followers of the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have blamed British forces for the coordinated series of car bombs which killed 73 people in the southern Iraqi city of Basra yesterday.
Several Iraqi policemen in uniform have joined the followers in protests.
The coalition say the attacks bore all the hallmarks of Al Qaeda, but Sadr's spokesman in Basra, Sheikh al-Bahadli, told the 300 supporters gathered in front of his office that there was evidence that British occupation forces were involved.
The targets of the attacks were Iraqi police stations and a uniformed policeman who joined the protest said "the British were the ones who attacked us".
"Now we are with our religious leaders," the policeman said.
Another policeman said many of his fellow officers were ready to fight alongside Sadr's Mehdi army.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1093087.htm
Abdul Satar al-Bahadli, Sadr's spokesman in the Shia city, brandished pieces of metal which he said were parts of an American missile aimed at one of the police stations targeted by the bombers. "Look it is written here - 'Made in the USA'," he said, as youths clamoured to see. However, the pieces appeared to be engine parts from one of the Chevrolets used in Wednesday's five suicide attacks.
Jawad Kazem, 24, a fitness instructor, said: "The coalition troops did it." He explained that there was widespread talk of a British convoy that passed by the al-Saudia police station minutes before the explosion there.
Nizar Hissan, 47, a tailor in the central market, said: "It is an ugly crime and I blame the British because we were supposed to be under their protection." In a barber shop, Alaa Abed Ali, 20, said the British were only partly responsible.
"I blame the Iraqi people for not being united against those that want to harm them and the police are weak and useless," he said. "As far as the coalition is concerned, I see no role for them because they really do not care about us."
Several policemen took part in the demonstration and said they would side with the populist cleric's gunmen if they clashed with British troops again.
Protesters carried a banner that read: "The Iraqi people say that al-Qa'eda is innocent from the Basra events and the guilty one is the criminal Blair." American, British and Iraqi officials have said that fundamentalists linked to al-Qa'eda or Sunni terrorists hoping to provoke sectarian violence were responsible.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/23/wirq123.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/04/23/ixnewstop.html
BAGHDAD -- Hundreds of followers of an influential Shi'ite Muslim leader demonstrated yesterday in the southern city of Basra as residents mourned the deaths of 73 people killed in five car bombings a day earlier.
The protesters, who support Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, shouted anti-foreign slogans near the funerals of two children who died in the suicide attacks, and they called for British troops to leave the city, according to television footage of the event. The death toll, which includes 20 children, rose overnight as some of the injured died.
US officials, who accused Sadr's forces of exploiting public grief for political purposes, contrasted the angry demonstration with the circumspect retreat of British troops from the scene.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2004/04/23/iraqi_protesters_rally_amid_basra_mourning/
Followers of the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have blamed British forces for the coordinated series of car bombs which killed 73 people in the southern Iraqi city of Basra yesterday.
Several Iraqi policemen in uniform have joined the followers in protests.
The coalition say the attacks bore all the hallmarks of Al Qaeda, but Sadr's spokesman in Basra, Sheikh al-Bahadli, told the 300 supporters gathered in front of his office that there was evidence that British occupation forces were involved.
The targets of the attacks were Iraqi police stations and a uniformed policeman who joined the protest said "the British were the ones who attacked us".
"Now we are with our religious leaders," the policeman said.
Another policeman said many of his fellow officers were ready to fight alongside Sadr's Mehdi army.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1093087.htm
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