Iraqi demonstrators demand withdrawal of U.S. troops

Source: Washington Post

Tens of thousands of Iraqis marched Friday at the urging of popular Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, decrying U.S. influence in the country and demanding that Washington withdraw its troops.

Around Baghdad’s Hurriyah Square, the streets were a sea of black, white and red, as protesters clutched Iraqi flags and wore shrouds around their shoulders to evoke the country’s dead. Iraq’s government is under growing pressure to expel foreign troops after a U.S. drone strike killed a renowned Iranian general on Iraqi soil, inflaming regional tensions and leaving Baghdad’s politicians fuming.

At the march on Friday, loudspeakers denounced American troops as occupiers. Posters depicted President Trump hanging from a noose. The anthems of Sadr’s years-long militancy against U.S. forces also blared.

Americans came to our country talking of freedom and democracy,” Qayser al-Saad, 23, from Baghdad’s Sadr City, said as he clutched at his sleeves on a bitterly cold day. “Today we’re asking them to leave so we can have just that. It won’t happen in a homeland occupied by foreigners.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iraqi-demonstrators-demand-withdrawal-of-us-troops/2020/01/24/b71de708-3df3-11ea-afe2-090eb37b60b1_story.html