Thousands Protest US Involvement in Iraq on 4 Year Anniversary of Fall of Baghdad

CNN is reporting that "thousands of anti-U.S. protesters marched in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Monday to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. Powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for the demonstration, which Najaf police said included tens of thousands of protesters. The U.S. Army estimated the crowd size at closer to 5,000 to 7,000 participants based on aerial photographs, said military spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Boylan. '[The] peaceful gathering is part of the right to peaceful assembly and the Iraqi people to voice their views,' Boylan said, calling it an example of the "changes occurring in Iraq.' Marchers joined the protest from Kufa to neighboring Najaf, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad, as Iraqi police watched, according to The Associated Press." (CNN News article) Muqtada al-Sadr is calling for his followers to attack the occupiers, and not each other. Many participating in the protest march carried Iraqi flags and carried leaflets.

A similar Fox News article provides additional details. "'The enemy that is occupying our country is now targeting the dignity of the Iraqi people,' said lawmaker Nassar al-Rubaie, head of al-Sadr's bloc in parliament, as he marched. 'After four years of occupation, we have hundreds of thousands of people dead and wounded.' A senior official in al-Sadr's organization in Najaf, Salah al-Obaydi, called the rally a 'call for liberation.' 'We're hoping that by next year's anniversary, we will be an independent and liberated Iraq with full sovereignty,' he said. Al-Sadr did not attend the demonstration, and has not appeared in public for months. U.S. officials say he left Iraq for neighboring Iran after the Feb. 14 start of a Baghdad security crackdown, but his followers say he is in Iraq." (Fox News article) Some in the US military view this protest in a positive light.

The protest included Iraqi soldiers. "Iraqi soldiers in uniform joined the crowd, which was led by at least a dozen turbaned clerics - including one Sunni. Many marchers danced as they moved through the streets. The demonstration ended without violence after about three hours, but two ambulances could be seen moving slowly with the marching crowd, poised to help if violence or stampedes broke out. Col. Steven Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman and aide to the commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq, praised the peaceful nature of the demonstration, saying Iraqis 'could not have done this four years ago.' 'This is the right to assemble, the right to free speech - they didn't have that under the former regime,' Boylan said. 'This is progress, there's no two ways about it.' Monday's demonstration marks four years since U.S. Marines and the Army's 3rd Infantry Division swept into the Iraqi capital 20 days into the American invasion." (Fox News article) To date, there has been no official response from the Pentagon or the White House.