Followers of radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr staged protests in Baghdad denouncing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Thursday after he launched a crackdown on Shiite militias in the southern city of Basra, AFP reported. Elsewhere, saboteurs blew up one of the two mail pipelines exporting crude oil from Iraq.
The protests began around 10am (local time) outside the office of the Sadr movement in its Baghdad bastion, the impoverished Sadr City district containing some two million people. “Maliki you are a coward! Maliki is an American agent! Leave the government, Maliki! How can you strike Basra?” shouted the crowd as they began gathering in the area, while Iraqi and US troops sealed off the streets.
The Sadr group announced on Wednesday that it would hold protest rallies against Maliki in Baghdad and the southern city of Amara after he launched a crackdown on Mahdi Army strongholds in Basra. |