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Baghdad: Several thousand supporters of anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr protested yesterday against an emerging US-Iraqi security agreement, saying it would turn Iraq into a US colony.
The march in the southern city of Kufa came a day after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad to discuss the deal, which includes a gradual withdrawal of US forces.
Under a draft agreement, American combat troops would pull out of major Iraqi cities by next June and leave Iraq by 2011, according to Iraqi officials familiar with the document.
The schedule could be modified if the two governments agree, and the pact has not been approved by either the Iraqi Cabinet or the parliament, which has the final decision.
Al Sadr, who lives in Iran but retains significant political clout in Iraq, strongly opposes the US military presence. Al Sadr and other critics fear that the pullout deal will bind the US and Iraq in a long-term security relationship, instead of restoring Iraqi sovereignty.
In Kufa, about 2,000 Sadrists marched after yesterday's noon prayers, chanting 'No to America' and raising pictures of Al Sadr. They held up banners reading "The dubious agreement means a permanent colonisation of Iraq" and "Iraq is not a US colony." An aide to Al Sadr, Shaikh Dia Al Shawki, told the worshippers that the emerging deal goes against the will of the Iraqi people.
Key point
In Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite slum and Al Sadr's stronghold in Baghdad, preacher Syed Al Battat criticised what he said was an ambiguous agreement 'that the Iraqi people know nothing about.'
A key point of contention has been the issue of jurisdiction over Americans in Iraq, as the Iraqi forces assume greater responsibility.
The draft agreement says that private US contractors would be subject to Iraqi law, unlike at present, but American negotiators held firm on US troops remaining under US jurisdiction. Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Hamoud Bidan provided more details yesterday, telling CNN that jurisdiction would be determined by a joint legal committee in cases of US citizens who commit major crimes against Iraqi civilians.
The deputy minister also reiterated that June 30 is the deadline for a troop withdrawal from Iraqi cities.
In other developments yesterday, Iraqi forces carried out an arrest raid in Sadr City. The forces struck as worshippers headed to a local mosque for dawn prayers, said Ali Al Moussawi, a spokesman for Al Sadr's office in the area.
Soldiers shot and killed one of Al Sadr's guards when he tried to escape arrest, Al Moussawi said. Another guard was arrested, he said.
Army officials had no immediate comment.
The Iraqi army won control of Sadr City in May, after weeks of battles with Al Sadr's now largely disbanded militia.
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