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Shiites protest US killings

Thousands of followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr took to the streets in Baghdad yesterday in protest at a US military operation that killed eight "extremists" near a revered Shiite shrine.

The demonstration followed an overnight raid in which US and Iraqi forces intended to capture "high-value individuals" meeting in the north of the capital, the US military said in a statement.

One Iraqi soldier and eight militants were killed during the operation near the Khadimiyah mosque, although none of the intended targets was captured, the military said.

Around 3,000 Sadr supporters filled the street in front of the shrine, waving Iraqi flags and banners and holding aloft a coffin they said contained the body of someone killed in the attack.

The US statement said that no US soldiers had entered the shrine or a nearby office of Sadr's movement, and complained of "misreporting in media."

"After setting up the cordon, coalition and Iraqi Forces received small arms fire. Men burned tires in the streets south of the Al-Sadr Mosque and near a children's hospital," the military said.

"Neither the hospital nor the mosque caught fire. Eight individuals were detained as a result of the operation and were turned over to the Iraqi security forces," it added.

Meanwhile, al-Sadr urged Iraqis to paint the concrete barriers springing up around Baghdad with murals showing what he dubbed the "ugly face" of the US military in Iraq.

US and Iraqi forces are gradually building a series of walls around or between some Baghdad neighborhoods, in what their commanders call a "concrete caterpillar" designed to protect residents from sectarian violence.

But many Iraqis argue that the barricades will only heighten tension between Sunnis and Shiites by segregating the once mixed city.

Baghdad council has employed professional artists to paint the walls with calming landscapes and scenes depicting Iraq's natural beauty but Sadr has something more dramatic in mind.

"I call on you to draw magnificent tableaux that depict the ugliness and terrorist nature of the occupier, and the sedition, car bombings, blood and the like he has brought upon Iraqis," he said, in a statement issued by his office.

"Paint the civilization of Iraq and the ugliness of the occupier. Paint the bright face of Iraq and the ugly face of the occupier," he continued.

Also yesterday, a suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi checkpoint in a predominantly Sunni area in Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 10, police said.

The blast occurred at 10am at an Interior Ministry checkpoint in Nisour Square in the western neighborhood of Harthiyah. Those killed included two commandos and two civilians, while five commandos and five civilians were wounded, police said.

The attack occurred despite stringent security measures and extra US and Iraqi forces on the streets as part of a security crackdown now in its 11th week.

Elsewhere in western Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded on a commercial street in the religiously mixed neighborhood of Baiyaa, killing one civilian and wounding two others, police said.
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