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From: Bart (129.171.32.13)
BAGHDAD: Mass protests against the US assault on the sacred Shi'ite Muslim city of Najaf broke out in five Iraqi cities yesterday, with some demonstrators calling for interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to step down. In one of the biggest protests, enraged Iraqis in the southern town of Diwaniya swarmed over the local office of his political party, ripping down signs and throwing rocks. The military offensive by US and Iraqi forces against militiamen of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr has inflamed passions among Shi'ites. Thousands also protested in central Baghdad, Kufa and Samawa. About three thousand demonstrators marched in the centre of Falluja carrying pictures of Sadr and placards denouncing the US bombing of Najaf. "Long live Sadr. Falluja stands by Najaf against America," the demonstrators shouted. Demonstrations also took place in Lebanon and Iran, where almost every major city held protests. A crowd in Tehran set fire to American flags and an effigy of US President George W Bush. Across Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, thousands of people took part in rallies condemning the attacks. State television showed footage of demonstrations in Qom, Mashad, Isfahan and other major cities. In Tehran, some wore white shrouds to symbolize their readiness to sacrifice their blood for the cause of Islam. "The attack on Najaf is the initial step by the US to exclude Islamists from the (political) scene of Iraq," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a hardline senior cleric, said in a Friday sermon. In the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, dozens of people protested the US military acts following Friday prayers in the city's Mansouri Mosque. Sadr's representative in Lebanon, Shaikh Hassan Al Zarkani, told the gathering: "Your brothers in Iraq have become united, Sunnis and Shi'ites, and fought together in Fallujah and Najaf." Syria's chief Islamic cleric, Shaikh Ahmad Kuftaro, condemned the military action in Najaf as "a flagrant violation to all international laws".
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