BAGHDAD: Thousands of supporters of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched in Baghdad on Thursday to protest against a three-day-old crackdown against his followers and call for the downfall of the U.S.-backed government.
Mass demonstrations were held in the Sadr City, Kadhimiya and Shula districts. An Interior Ministry source said hundreds of thousands had taken to the streets.
"We demand the downfall of the Maliki government. It does not represent the people. It represents Bush and Cheney," said Sadr City resident Hussein Abu Ali.
"The government wants to root out the Sadr movement ahead of provincial elections. We are demonstrating -- women, children and men -- to demand an end to the military operation. These are our brothers," said a man who gave his name as Abu Ammar.
Authorities imposed curfews across southern Iraq in an effort to halt the spread of violence after the largest military offensive carried out by Iraqi forces independent of major support from U.S. or British combat units.
More than 100 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since the government launched its crackdown in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday. Clashes have split Iraq's majority Shi'ite community and shattered a ceasefire declared last year by Sadr.Saboteurs blew up one of Iraq's two main oil export pipelines from Basra, cutting off a third of the exports from the city which provides 80 percent of the government's revenue. U.S. crude oil prices rose more than $1 to around $107 a barrel after the blast.
A massive mortar bombardment struck the main riverside police base at Basra palace before noon on Thursday and heavy shooting broke out in a main commercial street in the city, Iraq's second-largest, where the crackdown began on Tuesday.
"The operation is still ongoing and will continue until Basra is free from criminals and outlaws," Major-General Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, head of operations at the Iraqi Ministry of Defence, told reporters in Baghdad.
Clashes have spread in the past two days to the southern cities of Kut, Hilla, Diwaniya, Amara and Kerbala, as well as several Shi'ite neighbourhoods of Baghdad."LIVING IN HELL"
"We have been living for the last hours in hell. We have spent most of the time hiding under the staircase," said Basra resident Faris Hayder, 28. "We haven't seen anything like this since the foreign troops arrived in 2003."link:
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