Protests planned 2 years after Baghdad fell
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-09 08:53

Gunmen fired on supporters of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday, killing one person and wounding two others as they made their way to protests planned for the second anniversary of Baghdad's fall to U.S.-led troops.

In the poor New Baghdad neighborhood, meanwhile, four children were killed Friday when they came across explosives while digging through garbage for metal scraps, witnesses and police said. It was unclear what caused the blast.

"It's really ironic," said Qais Mousa, who saw the explosion. "We are living in a rich country, while these poor innocents are dying in this horrible way."

Iraqis wave pictures of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr during a rally after Friday prayers in the Sadr City section of Baghdad, Iraq Friday, April 8, 2005. al-Sadr, who led uprisings against the U.S.-led coalition last year, called on his supporters to stage a mass protest at Firdos Square in Baghdad Saturday, where jubilant demonstrators pulled down a statue of Saddam Hussein two years earlier, marking the beginning of a U.S.-led occupation of the country. Shiite and Sunni religious asked their supporters to hold demonstrations Saturday to demand that U.S.-led troops leave. [AP]

After dark Friday, al-Sadr supporters marched and chanted through the city, hanging anti-U.S. banners on columns surrounding Firdos Square, where a jubilant crowd pulled down a statue of Saddam Hussein on April 9, 2003, as U.S. troops spread through the capital.

Al-Sadr had urged his supporters to gather Saturday at the square, and a group was at the landmark along with police after the 11 p.m. curfew. U.S. and Iraqi officials said they were preparing for Saturday's demonstration.

The cleric had kept out of the limelight since his Mahdi Army militiamen accepted truces last year after failed uprisings in the southern city of Najaf and Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. But he has stepped up criticism of the United States in recent weeks, mostly by organizing Saturday's protest.

Sunni Muslim clerics also called demonstrations for Saturday to demand that American and other foreign troops leave Iraq.

Sheik Hassan al-Edhari, an official at al-Sadr's Baghdad office, said al-Sadr's mainly Shiite followers want the new Iraqi government to set a schedule for pulling out foreign troops and for putting Saddam on trial.

The toppled statue of Saddam Hussein is seen in Firdos Square downtown Baghdad in this April 9, 2003 file photo. [AP/file]

During his Friday morning sermon in the capital, the head of an influential Sunni group accused coalition forces of "killing the Iraqi people daily."

"We demand that the occupation troops withdraw from Iraq. We don't want them to do it immediately, but we want them to set a timetable for their withdrawal," said Sheik Harith al-Dahri, whose Association of Muslim Scholars is believed to have ties to Iraq's insurgents.

But at another Sunni mosque in Baghdad, Sheik Ahmad Hasan al-Taha instructed worshippers to refrain from marking the April 9 anniversary. Al-Taha also called for the release of arrested religious figures, claiming there were more than 90 imams in detention.

U.S. military officials said they had nothing planned to mark the anniversary, and refused to comment on security measures. But additional Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Humvees were seen in areas where demonstrations were expected.

A bomb killed a U.S. soldier Friday near Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. It also reported that a Marine died Wednesday in a motor vehicle accident during combat operations in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad. No other details were provided.

The Iraqi army said three masked gunmen killed an Iraqi army officer, Maj. Mahmoud Hassan al-Yassiri, late Thursday in the southern city of Basra.

In the Shiite holy city of Najaf, four civilians were injured by a bomb that exploded near a bus station, police Capt. Qussai al-Jazaeri said.

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