WORLD> Photo
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WORLD> Photo
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Thousands take to the streets to protest Israel
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-28 21:44
Several thousand people protested in the city of Samarra, a Sunni Arab city north of Baghdad and a few hundred took to the streets in Falluja in the mainly Sunni province of Anbar. "Arab silence is behind the bombings," one banner read. The protests took place as Israel launched more air strikes on Gaza on Sunday following attacks on Saturday initiated in response to rocket and mortar fire from Gaza militants. The attacks, some of the worst in 60 years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, incensed many in Iraq. Iraq hosted some 30,000 Palestinian refugees before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Many of them found themselves victim of attacks or threats once the war began, partly because they were seen as clients of the deposed leader Saddam. Many have fled, and several thousand Palestinian refugees have been stranded at camps near the Iraq-Syria border waiting to find a new home abroad for more than two years. The demonstrations in support of Palestinians, many of whom are Sunni Muslims, in Mosul and Falluja were organized by the Iraq's Sunni Arab Islamic Party. The office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the reclusive cleric who has peerless influence among Shi'ites in Iraq, issued a statement condemning what he called a 'savage' operation. "The Arab and Muslim world demand, more than ever, a practical stance to stop this never-ending offensive," it said. Moqtada al-Sadr, the Shi'ite cleric who is a chief foe of the US presence in Iraq, criticised close US ties to Israel. He accused Israel of having little regard for civilians' lives. "The massacre of innocents in Gaza is proof of what we are saying. All this is happening with backing of the American government and colonial states," he said in a statment. |
