[Onthebarricades] IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN and "war on terror" protests, Sept-Dec 2008

[global resistance roundup]

IRAQ

* Diala - Protest over death of Sunni leader
* Ramadi - four escape in jail revolt; 1 later killed, and 13 killed in jail
* SYRIA- Iraqis protest USpact
* Baghdad: Guards shoot at protesting Nepalese migrants
* Global rallies to support shoe thrower
* Baghdad: Protest backs shoe thrower
* Baghdad: Thousands of Sadr supporters protest US pact, occupation in 
November, October
* Protests also reach Wassit, Basra and other cities
* Salah al-Din: Clashes between residents, armed group over kidnapping
* Tikrit and elsewhere: Protests support leader against Kurdish critics
* Mosul - Protesters want councils
* Mosul, Fallujah - protests in favour of pact
* SYRIA: Lawyers strike over US deal
* Karbala - Doctors protest death threats, strike
* Southern Iraq - Christians protest against ethnic cleansing
* Fallujah/nationwide - party breaks off links with US forces over killing
* Babil - 15 killed in insurgent, tribe clash
* Duhuk - Christians protest for self-rule
* Kirkuk - Kurds protest in support of Christians
* Wassit - reconstruction staff protest over salary discrepancies


AFGHANISTAN
* Kabul - Protest over civilian death after army shooting, US forces stoned
* PAKISTAN: RAWA protest Afghan representatives
* Herat - protest over envoy kidnapping
* Laghman - Taleban killings of locals lead to protests
* Kabul - eight prisoners massacred in revolt

Other "war on terror":
* PAKISTAN - NWFP: Protest over US drone strikes
* SOMALIA: Protests for, against local rulers



“Sock and Awe”, a Dubai-based online game based on the shoe-throwing 
incident, can be found here:
http://www.sockandawe.com/



http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=104122

Demonstration in Diala condemning death of Sunni figure
December 3, 2008 - 02:00:12
DIALA/ Aswat al-Iraq: Around 500 persons on Wednesday demonstrated in 
central Baaquba city, condemning the death of Hamas battalions’ (public 
committees’ group) commander, after he was arrested by Diala police last 
week, according to the commander of public committees in the province.
“Basheer al-Jorani died yesterday after he was arrested by Diala police 
command last week,” Sabah al-Basheer told Aswat al-Iraq.
“I accuse Diala police crime unit of killing al-Jorani after torturing 
him,” he said.
“Al-Jorani was sick with kidney problems since the beginning, and after 
being arrested, he was admitted to hospital where he died and medical 
reports can confirm this,” he added.
Baaquba, the capital city of Diala province, lies 57 km northeast of 
Baghdad.








http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/775860

Militants escape in deadly Iraq clash
Reuters
Last updated 23:40 26/12/2008

Three senior Islamist militants being held by Iraqi authorities escaped 
in clashes overnight at a police station in Iraq's western city of 
Ramadi in which seven police and seven militants were killed, an 
official said.
Police imposed a curfew and searched homes in Ramadi, a largely peaceful 
city 100km west of Baghdad, the morning after the battle in the 
al-Fursan police station, said Major-General Tareq Yusuf, police 
commander for Anbar province.
Yusuf said that prisoners in the police station overpowered a policeman 
who entered a cell around 2 a.m. on Friday, stealing the man's weapon 
and killing him.
Six other police officers, including a lieutenant colonel and a captain, 
were killed in subsequent clashes and six were wounded, Yusuf said. 
Seven of the militants inside the police prison were killed in the 
fighting, he said.
Three leaders of the al Qaeda-linked Sunni Islamist group Islamic State 
in Iraq escaped during the fighting, said Yusuf, also known as Tareq 
al-Dulami.
Anbar province, a vast desert province bordering Syria, Jordan and Saudi 
Arabia, was once the heart of Iraq's Sunni insurgency. But it became far 
quieter after local Sunni Arabs began supporting US efforts against al 
Qaeda and other militants in late 2006.
The United States handed security control of Anbar to the Iraqi 
government in September, but US Marines are still stationed in the province.
Yusuf said that police were going house to house with photos of the 
escaped inmates on Friday morning. He pledged the militants would be 
captured.
"The people of this city will help us bring them back to justice," he said.






http://tvnz.co.nz/content/2430596

Militant killed after jailbreak
Published: 12:49PM Sunday December 28, 2008
Source: Reuters
Police tracked down and killed a suspected Iraqi militant the night 
after the man believed to have links to al Qaeda disappeared in a bold 
jailbreak in western Iraq, a senior police official said.
Police shot Imad Ahmed Farhan, described as a leader of the Islamic 
State in Iraq, a Sunni Islamist group linked to al Qaeda, after 
surrounding a house where he was holed up in the city of Ramadi, said 
Major-General Tareq Yusuf, police commander for western Anbar province.
Farhan, who was accused of killing 37 people, and two other suspected 
militants escaped from a police jail in Ramadi, 100 kilometres west of 
Baghdad, in a dramatic riot overnight on Friday.
Prisoners lured a policeman into their cell, stealing his weapon and 
killing him. Six other police officers and seven prisoners were killed 
in the subsequent fighting.
Yusuf said the two other men who escaped with Farhan, were still at large.
"We are chasing them, we are following them, and we will soon arrest 
them, God willing," Yusuf said.
Yusuf said that Farhan had taken the family which lived in the home 
where he was killed hostage and fired at police from inside until he was 
shot dead himself.
A local resident who witnessed the events, however, said that the 
standoff continued even after Farhan was shot, suggesting the other 
militants may have been inside as well.
A lieutenant colonel in the Ramadi police, who asked to go unnamed, said 
that two accomplices surrendered after Farhan was shot, but they were 
not the two escaped prisoners.
He said one civilian in the area was killed and one was wounded during 
the standoff. Three police officers were wounded, he said.
Anbar, a vast desert region, was once Iraq's wild west and a hotbed of 
Sunni Islamist insurgency against US and Iraqi forces. But the province 
has gradually become far quieter. Earlier this fall, Iraqi security 
forces assumed control for Anbar's security from US Marines stationed there.





http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081227/NEWS/812270359/-1/NEWS09

Published: December 27, 2008 3:00 a.m.
Briefs
Suspected insurgents flee jail in deadly riot
News services
BAGHDAD – Four suspected al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents escaped jail during 
a riot Friday that killed six police officers and seven prisoners in the 
western city of Ramadi, police said.
Maj. Gen. Tariq Yousif, the police chief of Anbar province, said a 
prisoner held in a cell with 11 others asked a guard to allow him to go 
to the bathroom.
When the guard opened the cell door, the prisoners pulled him in, 
grabbed his assault rifle and killed him, then attacked other police. 
Some detainees managed to escape in the ensuing riot.






http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/27/world/fg-iraq27

Iraq prison riot leaves 13 dead
Authorities say a suspected Sunni Arab insurgent with ties to Al Qaeda 
in Iraq persuaded a guard to open his cell door, then overpowered him, 
setting off the riot in Ramadi.
By Kimi Yoshino
December 27, 2008
Reporting from Baghdad — A suspected Sunni Arab insurgent with ties to 
the group Al Qaeda in Iraq persuaded a prison guard to open his cell 
door, then overpowered him and stole his weapon, setting off a deadly 
riot that left 13 people dead in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, authorities said.
Seven detainees were killed in the clash early today, including the 
suspected insurgent, along with six police officers.
Three other suspected Islamist militants escaped and a fourth turned 
himself in without incident, said Tareq Yusuf Dulaimi, Anbar province 
police chief. One of the escapees is considered a high-ranking leader in 
Al Qaeda in Iraq who has confessed to killing at least three police 
officers, authorities said.
Ramadi Mayor Latif Ubaid Iyada blamed the escape on a negligent prison 
guard, who unlocked the cell while carrying his AK-47. "They attacked 
our policeman and killed him," Iyada said. "They did their dirty trick 
and exploited his humanity for trying to help the sick prisoner."
Dulaimi said police officers took control of the situation quickly, 
containing most of the three dozen prisoners held in one of two cells at 
the station. In all, about 11 suspects escaped their cells. Three were 
killed inside the jail and three others died just outside the station. 
Police chased a seventh suspect about 10 miles before fatally shooting him.
Authorities immediately instituted a curfew at 5 a.m., which lasted 
throughout the day. Police searched large swaths of Anbar province to 
look for the three remaining escapees. Roads exiting to Ramadi were closed.
"The citizens of Anbar condemn the jailbreak," Iyada said in an 
interview on Arabiya TV. "There is no return for terrorism in Ramadi -- 
not today, nor in the future, because the police forces in Anbar are in 
full control."
At least 10 other police officers were wounded in the attack, which 
authorities believe may have been premeditated. They were being treated 
at a hospital in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar.
kimi.yoshino at latimes.com
A correspondent in Ramadi and Times staff writers in Baghdad contributed 
to this report.






http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7013531522

13 Dead In Iraqi Al-Qaeda Jail Riot, Four Prisoners Escape
December 26, 2008 11:38 a.m. EST
Ayinde O. Chase - AHN Editor
Baghdad, Iraq (AHN) - During a riot on Friday in the western Iraqi city 
of Ramadi, four suspected Al-Qaeda in Iraq insurgents broke out of jail. 
The melee resulted in six police officers and seven prisoners being killed.
Three of the militants, including a man Iraqi police described as being 
a local leader of the Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia remain at large.
Maj. Gen. Tariq Yousif, the police chief of Anbar province, Iraq's 
largest province, of which Ramadi is the capital, said four prisoners 
escaped from the city's al-Forsan police station. U.S. Military 
estimates place the numbers for those killed as six too, however, 
according to their numbers only three prisoners escaped.
According to Yousif, the incident began when a prisoner being held in a 
cell with 11 others asked a guard to allow him to go to the bathroom.
Emad Ahmed Ferhan, who is the suspected Al-Qaeda leader in Mesopotamia, 
complained to police officer, Majid Latif that he felt nauseous and 
needed to use the toilet. As Ferhan was leaving the cell, which held 
about 30 inmates at the time, he attacked Latif.
The prisoners pulled Latif in, grabbed his AK-47 assault rifle and 
killed him. The escaping prisoners then attacked other police.
The police chief further reveals that the prisoners were all suspected 
insurgents of the group Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Following the initial 
shooting, a second police officer rushed to the scene, but he was also 
shot dead, the authorities said.
Next the prisoners, armed with a second automatic weapon, made their way 
to the police station's armory in order to secure more guns and 
ammunition, officials said.
In a New York Times article Mohammed Dulaimiin a police officer wounded 
in the attack says, "When they came out of the police station, they were 
shooting at us." He added, "I shot back and I killed one of them, but 
some of them escaped."
Following the riot and prison break a curfew in the city was enacted.
"The locals have played a prominent role in helping with security in 
town," said Mayor Ayada.
Iraq's government took over security for Anbar province from the U.S. 
military in September. Iraq now controls security in 13 of Iraq's 18 
provinces.
Anbar which stretches from the western gates of Baghdad to the borders 
of Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia was once the focal point in the Sunni 
insurgency, which broke out soon after the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 
toppled Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime.
However two years ago Al-Qaeda lost its stronghold on the region when 
Sunni tribes banded together with U.S. Forces and turned against 
Al-Qaeda in light of the group's brutal tactics.






http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-25240-Iraqis-protest-against-US-pact-in-Syria.html

Iraqis protest against US pact in Syria
Wednesday, December 03, 2008 10:55 GMT
Around two thousands Iraqis protested in Sayydeh Zeinab region protested 
against Iraqi-US security pact.
Protesters shouted slogans against the pact while Syrian Tishrin 
Newspaper criticized the agreement saying it aims to legitimize “US 
occupation to Iraq”.





http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article5279431.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093

December 4, 2008
Iraqi guards open fire as migrants riot about deportation
Deborah Haynes in Baghdad
Recommend?

(Deborah Haynes/The Times)
Nepalese squatters in Baghdad. Many foreign workers have come to Baghdad 
expecting to find work
Migrant workers who paid thousands of dollars to get to Iraq, where they 
hoped to find jobs as contractors, rioted yesterday because they feared 
they were about to be deported.
About 450 men were due to be flown out of Iraq last night after spending 
up to three months inside a warehouse compound near Baghdad airport. 
Another 500 from Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka will be forced 
to leave the country in the coming days after the Kuwaiti company that 
hired them failed to secure enough contract work at dining facilities 
inside US bases in Iraq.
Each paid up to $3,000 (£2,000) to middlemen on the promise of work as 
soon as they arrived in Iraq, but the jobs never materialised. Instead, 
they found themselves confined to three overcrowded warehouses in a 
secure zone around Baghdad airport. They said that food and hygiene were 
bad.
With fears growing that the company was preparing to deport them without 
paying any wages, some of the workers turned violent when Iraqi 
immigration officials visited the compound, according to several Sri 
Lankans who were there.
Iraqi security guards began shooting into the air after a company 
manager was beaten by the workers.
“People are getting shot at,” said Manoj Kodithuwakku, one of the Sri 
Lankan workers, as what sounded like gunfire cracked in the background. 
“It is pandemonium in here.” Sampa Fernando, 31, also from Sri Lanka, 
agreed. “I saw them shoot with my own eyes. As soon as that happened I 
ran. Nobody was killed and no one was injured in the shooting,” he said.
The men were brought to Baghdad in the past three months to work for 
Najlaa International Catering Services, which is a subcontractor to 
Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a main service provider to the US 
Department of Defence. Last night hundreds were being taken out of the 
country. “The buses are going now,” Mr Kodithuwakku, 28, said. “We have 
reached a point where there is no other way to turn than to go.”
A couple of the workers had minor cuts to their heads after being hit by 
stones before Iraqi police arrived.
The feeling of resentment was running high, with workers accusing Najlaa 
of tricking them into handing over their passports on Tuesday after 
assurances that they would be used in the payment of salaries. The 
passports were not returned, which led to speculation that they were 
being kept before a mass, enforced departure.
Marwan Rizk, the chief executive officer of Najlaa, said the company had 
decided that the best thing was for the workers to go home.
“They are being demobilised to their respective countries,” he told The 
Times. “It is because some contracts have basically vanished or been 
rescinded.” Mr Rizk, speaking from Kuwait, said that each man would 
receive a month’s salary when they arrived in Dubai, a transit hub for 
people travelling from Baghdad. He rejected allegations that the men 
were kept in poor living conditions.
At the warehouses the mood was dark, with people contemplating a 
premature return to their families in debt rather than with the expected 
riches of a deployment to Iraq, where wages are much higher than in the 
developing world.
“We do not have any money to celebrate Christmas,” said Sanjaya 
Jayawardhana, 29, who has a child. “I have spent three months without 
getting anything. We have been turned into beggars.” Mr Kodithuwakku 
said that he was putting a dream to migrate to Australia on hold: “It 
will be a gloomy Christmas. But I will survive.”
Both of the men, as well as several others contacted by The Times, feel 
they have been exploited. Asked about the allegations, a spokesman for 
the US military said: “We take every allegation of human rights 
violation seriously and are looking into the issue. Until that time, we 
will reserve comment.”







http://www.euronews.net/2008/12/26/iranians-march-in-support-of-shoe-protester/

world news
There has been a wave of protests in Iraq and other countries, and now 
people in Iran have made their feelings known. Scores of demonstrators 
have gathered in Tehran in support of the Iraqi journalist who threw his 
shoes at US president George W. Bush. The TV reporter Muntadhar al-Zeidi 
has been in custody since the incident in Baghdad on December 14. “The 
journalist who threw his shoes at George Bush gave this traitor a good 
farewell,” said one man. “Bush has committed a lot of cruelty against 
the people of Iraq and other countries.”
Authorities in Baghdad have confirmed that the trial of the journalist 
will begin on New Year’s Eve. He has been charged with attacking a 
foreign leader during an official visit, which carries a jail term of 
between five and 15 years.





http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-12/16/content_10514717.htm

Thousands rally in Iraq to support Bush shoe thrower

Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq
Video:Iraqis demand release of shoe-thrower

BAGHDAD, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Iraqis have taken to streets 
on Tuesday for second day to demand the release of an Iraqi journalist 
who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush during a news 
conference two days ago.

A shoe is raised during a protest against the U.S. President's visit in 
the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday. Dec. 15, 
2008.Thousands of Iraqis have taken to streets on Tuesday for second day 
to demand the release of an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at U.S. 
President George W. Bush during a news conference two days ago. (Photo: 
CRIOnline.com)

Iraqis across the country hailed the journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi, who 
worked for Cairo-based Baghdadia television, and praised his act of 
throwing shoes at Bush as a heroic action.
In Iraq's northern city of Mosul, hundreds of protestors gathered 
outside the building of the city university carrying banners and chanted 
slogans, demanding release of the reporter anddescribing him as a 
national hero.
In Nassriyah city, the capital of Dhi Qar province in southern Iraq, 
dozens of people from local civil organizations of the Zaidiya tribe, 
where the reporter's family belongs, demonstrated in central city and 
also demanded the release of Zaidi.
Several more demonstrations have taken the streets in other cities of 
Salahudin, Hilla and Fallujah.

On Monday, thousands of supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada 
al-Sadr rallied in the Sadr City neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, where 
Zaidi's family live, burned American flags to protest against Bush and 
demanded the release of Zaidi.
Abdul Kareem Khalaf, head of operation office in the Interior Ministry, 
said that "an arrest warrant has been issued against Zaidi for 
committing a misdemeanor for throwing his shoes on President Bush and he 
has to get proper punishment."
"The shoe throwing was also an insult to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki 
himself," Khalaf said.

Also on Tuesday, the Union of Iraqi Lawyers announced in a statement 
obtained by Xinhua, that it supports Zaidi and it is preparing a group 
of lawyers for defending him if being prosecuted.
"Misdemeanor, according to the Iraqi law, could take sentences ranging 
from three months to three years in prison, but for Zaidi it could be 
easier than that because the court may consider Zaidi's act was 
expressing his rejection for the U.S. soldiers crimes toIraqis," Ali 
al-Dulaimi, a lawyer, told Xinhua.
Zaidi, 29, was immediately wrestled to the ground by security guards on 
Sunday night after throwing his shoes on Bush and since then he was 
being held by Iraqi security forces for interrogation and he was also 
being tested for alcohol and drugs.







http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Iraq-Shoe-Throwing-Reporter-Muntadhar-Al-Zeidi-In-Military-Custody-Over-George-Bush-Incident/Article/200812315182078?f=rss

Protests Back Bush Shoe-Thrower
11:36am UK, Tuesday December 16, 2008
Thousands of protesters have demanded the release of an Iraqi journalist 
handed over to the military for throwing shoes at George Bush.

Protesters in Baghdad call for reporter to be freed
Muntadhar al Zeidi was turned over by security guards to face further 
investigation by the military command in charge of Baghdad, an official 
said.
He was initially taken into custody for interrogation about whether 
anybody had paid him to throw his shoes at the US President during a 
news conference.
The reporter could face charges of insulting a foreign leader and the 
Iraqi prime minister.
He could be jailed for up to two years if found guilty.

Journalist throws shoe
Around 1,000 protesters marched in the city of Mosul to demand al 
Zeidi's release, while a few hundred others demonstrated in Nasiriyah 
and Fallujah.
"Muntadhar al Zeidi has expressed the feelings and ambitions of the 
Iraqi people toward the symbol of tyranny," said Nassar Afrawi, a 
protester in Nasiriyah.
Tens of thousands demonstrated on Monday in support of al Zeidi, who has 
become a hero among many in the Arab world opposed to US policies.
The head of the Iraqi Union of Journalists described his actions as 
"strange and unprofessional" but urged Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki to 
give him clemency.
"Even if he has committed a mistake, the government and the judiciary 
are broad-minded and we hope they consider his release because he has a 
family and he is still young," Mouyyad al Lami said.
Sure, he's already something of a hero in many parts of the Middle East, 
and, if he comes out of this unscathed, he's destined for his own pan 
Arabic chat show.
- Sky's foreign editor, Tim Marshall, in our Foreign Matters blog
Al Zeidi, 29, is from the private TV channel al Baghdadia.
He was overpowered by Iraqi security forces after he threw the shoes, a 
gesture seen as the ultimate mark of disrespect in the Muslim world.
Lebanese channel NTV, known for its criticism of Washington, offered him 
a job - saying he would be paid "from the moment the first shoe was thrown".







http://www.breitbart.com/image.php?id=iafp081217184021.pi9jpn0bp2&show_article=1

Iraqis protest against the arrest of Muntazer al-Zaidi


An Iraqi shouts slogans as he protests against the arrest of Muntazer 
al-Zaidi who caused a furore when he hurled shoes at US President George 
W. Bush. The Iraqi journalist who became an instant media star for 
hurling his shoes at US President George W. Bush appeared on Wednesday 
before a judge investigating the incident, his brother said.









http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7800453.stm

Friday, 26 December 2008
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Printable version


Iranians join Bush shoe protest
By Martin Vennard
BBC News


The protesters threw shoes at caricatures of Mr Bush
Dozens of Iranians in the country's capital Tehran have held their own 
shoe-throwing rally in protest at US President George W Bush.
They were showing support for the Iraqi journalist who threw his 
footwear at the American leader in Baghdad.
The protesters waved their shoes in the air before throwing them at 
posters featuring caricatures of Mr Bush.
The journalist, Muntadar al-Zaidi, is due to go on trial in Iraq, 
accused of assaulting a foreign head of state.
'Cruelty'
The demonstration took place near Tehran university as people headed to 
Friday prayers.
One demonstrator, who called himself Mr Ghanati, said he was a member of 
the Islamic guards and that the Iraqi journalist had seen off the 
"traitor" Mr Bush with his action.
"Bush has committed a lot of cruelty against the people of Iraq and 
other countries," he said.
A similar demonstration took place at a university in Iran's Isfahan 
province on Thursday and there have been other such protests across the 
region.
Iraqis have called for the release of the journalist.
Muntadar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at Mr Bush as the president was giving 
a news conference during a visit to Baghdad this month.
Since then a Turkish firm, which claims it made the shoes, says it has 
had to take on 100 extra staff to cope with the surge in orders.







http://www.nowpublic.com/world/protesters-shake-shoes-u-s-embassy-london-photo-02

Protesters Shake Shoes at U.S. Embassy in London -Photo-02

uploaded by Tanweer December 20, 2008 at 01:46 am
Protesters pile shoes in a box to post to U.S. President George W. Bush 
outside the U.S Embassy in central London December 19, 2008. The 
protesters were demonstrating for the release of Iraqi TV reporter 
Muntazer al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at Bush during a news conference 
in Baghdad.







http://www.myantiwar.org/view/168443.html

Bangladeshi protestors demand release of Iraqi Shoe-Hurling Journalist 
Muntadhar al-Zaidi



www.chinaview.cn 2008-12-21 09:32:22









http://www.myantiwar.org/view/168443.html

Hundreds in Jordan call for shoe-thrower's release



www.chinaview.cn 2008-12-21 00:10:05

AMMAN, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of people on Saturday gathered in 
Jordan's capital of Amman, calling for the release of the Iraqi 
journalist who threw shoes at U.S. president George W. Bush.
They chanted "Down, down with Bush," and praised Muntadhar al-Zaidi, the 
Iraqi journalist, as a "hero," calling for his release.
Protesters held up banners including a picture of U.S. President George 
W. Bush with a real shoe fixed on it, picture showing Bush dodging a 
flying shoe and even pictures of late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
At a news conference Bush held last Sunday in Baghdad with Iraqi Prime 
Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Muntadhar al-Zaidi, reporter of Baghdadiya 
television, jumped and threw his two shoes one by one at Bush and called 
him a "dog" in Arabic.
Bush ducked and narrowly missed being struck, but the journalist was 
wrestled by several security members to the floor and then dragged out 
of the hall as he was screaming.






http://paperdragon.newsvine.com/_news/2008/12/20/2234533-protesters-wave-shoes-at-us-embassy-in-ankara

Protesters wave shoes at US Embassy in Ankara
News Type: Event — Seeded on Sat Dec 20, 2008 7:16 PM EST
Article Source: JPost.com
world-news, iraq, protest, shoes, ankara, tukey, al-zeidi
Seeded by Dennis P. McCann
Protesters laid a black wreath with an imprint of a shoe at the gate of 
the US Embassy in Ankara on Saturday in a show of support for a jailed 
Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during 
a news conference in Iraq.
About 50 demonstrators, some carrying shoes mounted on sticks, protested 
the arrest of Muntadhar al-Zeidi and called for his release.
"Bye bye Bush the dog," read the sign on the wreath.
The group, who called themselves the Turkey Youth Union, said in a 
statement that detaining a "hero" was unacceptable.






http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/mhsnkfcweyid/rss2/

London protesters call for shoe thrower to be freed
Print Email+ Share+

19/12/2008 - 15:14:12
Protesters waving shoes outside the US Embassy in London today demanded 
the release of “courageous” Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi.

He remains in custody after hurling shoes towards US President George 
Bush at a press conference in Baghdad on Sunday.

A judge investigating the incident has said al-Zaidi had bruises on his 
face and around his eyes.

Media Workers Against The War delivered a letter to the US Embassy 
today, which read: “We as journalists believe that our colleague 
Muntadar al-Zaidi, who protested at President George Bush in Baghdad on 
Sunday is guilty of nothing but expressing Iraqis’ legitimate and 
overwhelming opposition to the US-led occupation of their country.

“We call on you to guarantee his safe treatment and affect his immediate 
release from custody.”

Its signatures included Tony Benn, president, Stop The War Coalition, 
and MP Jeremy Corbyn.

The Metropolitan Police estimated that there were around 40 protestors. 
Most arrived holding shoes in support of al-Zaidi.

Media Workers Against The War chairman David Crouch, who handed the 
letter to an embassy security officer, told the crowd: “We know the 
Iraqi Government has a dreadful record on the way that they harass, the 
way that they persecute and sometimes torture and kill journalists.

“So it’s extremely important that we send our message today to the 
Ambassador Robert Tuttle and to George Bush that the occupying power has 
the responsibility for al-Zaidi’s safety and must free him immediately.

“He has stood up against the silence and the lies that we have been 
forced to take all too often in the British and international media.

“I’m a journalist myself. Our role is to give a voice to people who 
don’t have a voice and for that reason al-Zaidi might as well have 
thrown 27 million shoes at George Bush, because he was speaking for the 
vast overwhelming majority of the Iraqi population.

“There is no press freedom in Iraq. Anyone who tells you any different 
is lying.”

Mr Crouch, a news editor at a national newspaper, added: “If you are a 
journalist and you speak your mind in Iraq then you put your life on the 
line, and this is what al-Zaidi has done.”

Another protester, Sabah Jawad, Iraqi Democrats Against The Occupation, 
said: “This guy was courageous. He didn’t think about the consequences 
of his actions.

“He went there fully aware that this might be an implication for him and 
for his safety.

“His life is in threat but he represented the Iraqi people by this 
action. We are demanding his immediate and unconditional release.”







http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/national_world&id=6566404

Protesters shake shoes at US Embassy in London
Saturday, December 20, 2008 | 9:15 PM
A pile of shoes, seen, dumped in a box outside the US Embassy by 
demonstrators in London, Friday, Dec. 19, 2008. Stop the War coalition 
are calling for the guaranteed safety and release of Iraqi journalist, 
Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who threw his shoes at US President George Bush 
during a press conference in Baghdad. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

LONDON (AP) - December 20, 2008 -- Protesters shook their shoes at the 
U.S. Embassy in London on Friday in a show of support for a jailed Iraqi 
journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during a news 
conference in Iraq.
Up to 50 demonstrators, some carrying shoes mounted on sticks, protested 
the arrest of journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi and called for his release.
"He has stood up against the silence and the lies that we have been 
forced to take all too often in the British and international media," 
said David Crouch, the chairman of Media Workers Against The War, a 
group representing anti-war journalists.
"Our role is to give a voice to people who don't have a voice and for 
that reason al-Zeidi might as well have thrown 27 million shoes at 
George Bush, because he was speaking for the vast overwhelming majority 
of the Iraqi population," Crouch said.
Story continues below
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The protest ended when demonstrators dumped their shoes - including high 
heels, sneakers, and slippers - into a box in front of the U.S. Embassy 
at London's Grosvenor Square






http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=cp_giehkfeka19&show_article=1

Footwear to be flying at Montreal protest in support of Iraqi reporter

Dec 18 05:07 PM US/Eastern
Sidhartha Banerjee, THE CANADIAN PRESS Comments (0)

MONTREAL - If nothing else, it's a protest that promises to have a lot 
of sole.
Montrealers are being invited to hurl their footwear at the U.S. 
Consulate on Saturday in solidarity with an Iraqi journalist who threw 
his shoes at President George W. Bush this week.
The event is being organized by Block the Empire, a Montreal-based 
antiwar protest group that regularly laces into Bush's foreign policy.


Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi has been detained in Iraq since 
firing his shoes at Bush at a news conference last Sunday.
Protest organizer Sophie Schoen said people are invited to bring any 
footwear.
"People everywhere were really inspired by the initial shoe-throwing at 
George Bush," said Schoen.
"I think it's a good way to shed some light on the continued occupation 
of Iraq, and also for us in Canada the occupation of Afghanistan 
especially since the U.S. government is planning to intensify its 
actions in Afghanistan."
The afternoon protest will begin at the consulate before moving to the 
Canadian Forces recruitment centre in downtown Montreal for yet another 
shoe-tossing - to make the link between Iraq and Afghanistan, Schoen said.
To boot, journalists are being asked to take part in solidarity with 
their detained colleague.
"I'm sure there are several journalists who are dying to throw their 
shoes," Schoen said.
Since the incident, thousands have taken to the streets in Iraq and 
elsewhere to protest al-Zeidi's arrest.
The footage of the reporter whipping his shoes one at a time at a 
ducking-and-weaving Bush has been broadcast repeatedly around the world.
The journalist also shouted at Bush in Arabic: "This is your farewell 
kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were 
killed in Iraq."
In a letter to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, al-Zeidi was 
repentant and formally requested a pardon on Thursday.
Iraqi officials have said al-Zeidi would probably be charged with 
insulting a foreign leader, which potentially carries a two-year sentence.
Schoen says at least a few dozen people might gather on Saturday, but 
she is hopeful for many, many more.
"I think people everywhere it spoke for them - it spoke to what people's 
views are on the occupation of Iraq and U.S. imperialism," Schoen said.

The Canadian Press, 2008








http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1047974.html

19/12/2008

Palestinian journalists protest for release of Iraqi colleague who threw 
shoes at Bush By The Associated Press Tags: Iraqi journalist shoes
Several dozen Palestinian journalists took off their shoes Thursday in a 
protest in Bethlehem's Manger Square, to show support for the Iraqi 
journalist who hurled his shoes
at U.S. President George W. Bush earlier this week.

The journalist currently remains in Iraqi custody and could face two 
years in prison for insulting a foreign leader. A spokesman for Iraq's 
prime minister says Muntadhar al-Zeidi has apologized for throwing the 
shoes. In the Arab world, throwing shoes at someone is considered to be 
a sign of deep disrespect.

In Bethelehem, al-Zeidi's Palestinian colleagues waved Palestinian and 
Iraqi flags. They also held signs in English, reading "Bush deserved it."

The shoe toss triggered an outpouring of support for al-Zeidi.The TV 
station where he works repeatedly aired pleas Monday for his release, 
while airing footage of explosions and playing background music that 
denounced the U.S. in Iraq.

On Tuesday, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip held a rally in support of 
al-Zeidi, demanding
his release and stepping on photos of Bush.







http://www.myantiwar.org/view/168239.html

December 18, 2008
Protests rise over alleged beating of 'shoe man' Muntazar al-Zaidi
Catherine Philp, Diplomatic Correspondent
The furore over President Bush’s shoe-throwing assailant spread through 
Iraq and across international borders yesterday, claiming its first 
political casualty as protests grew over his continued detention and 
alleged ill-treatment.
The brother of Muntazar al-Zaidi, who secured his place in infamy with 
his outburst against Mr Bush at a press conference in Baghdad, claimed 
that the Shia journalist had been so badly beaten in custody that police 
were unable to produce him in court.
Mr al-Zaidi’s family were told that a court hearing had been held in his 
jail cell instead and that they would not be allowed to see him for at 
least another eight days. “That means my brother was severely beaten and 
they fear that his appearance could trigger anger at the court,” Dargham 
al-Zaidi said, adding that his brother had been treated for a broken arm 
and ribs at the military hospital in the green zone.
Anger at Mr al-Zaidi’s treatment erupted in the Iraqi parliament, 
provoking stand-up rows and prompting the resignation of the assembly’s 
notoriously hot-tempered Speaker. “I have no honour leading this 
parliament and I announce my resignation,” Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said 
after quitting the assembly amid chaos created by Shia politicians.
In three days Mr al-Zaidi has gone from minor television presenter to a 
hero of Islamic resistance. Thousands of Iraqis, both Sunni and Shia, 
took to the streets in cities from Mosul to Nasiriyah yesterday in a 
second day of protests demanding his release. Smaller groups gathered in 
the Paki-stani cities of Lahore and Karachi. In Beirut university 
students threw footwear at an effigy of the American President before 
setting it on fire.
In Egypt Muntazer al-Zaidi was so struck by Mr al-Zaidi that he offered 
his daughter in marriage, a proposition she wholeheartedly supported. 
“This is something that would honour me. I would like to live in Iraq, 
especially if I were attached to this hero,” Amal Saad Gumaa, 20, said.
In Afghanistan, Mr al-Zaidi has become the subject of aSaturday Night 
Live-style television comedy show that used actors to reconstruct the 
scene.
Mr al-Zaidi has not been seen in public or by his family since he was 
hauled out from Sunday’s press conference by the bodyguards of Nouri 
al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister. He is under investigation pending 
charges of insulting a visiting dignitary, a crime punishable with a 
jail sentence of up to seven years.
At the press conference, Mr al-Zaidi, a reporter for the Iraqi 
al-Baghdadia television channel, rose to deliver a question before 
pulling off his shoes, one after the other, and hurling them at Mr Bush. 
“This is your farewell kiss, you dog!” he shouted in Arabic, combining 
two of the harshest insults in Middle Eastern culture. Mr Bush was 
uninjured but his press secretary, Dana Perino, appeared before 
reporters in Washington yesterday sporting a faint black eye, the result 
of a collision with a microphone in the mêlée.
Mr Bush has laughed off the incident, claiming not to understand the 
implied insult. It was “just a shoe”, he insisted. But nerves were 
rising in Washington at Mr al-Zaidi’s continued nonappearance, 
especially after the official spin that Mr Bush had brought
Iraqis the freedom to register such protests without risking 
imprisonment or torture. The State Department said that it would issue a 
condemnation if it were true that Mr al-Zaidi had been beaten up.
Mr al-Zaidi’s protest has spawned a rash of viral internet games. One, 
from Dubai, called “Sock and Awe” gives players 30 seconds to hurl as 
many shoes as they can at Mr Bush, scoring a point for each direct hit.






http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=152473

Journalists protest against shoe-thrower’s detention Thursday, December 
18, 2008
LAHORE: Around 200 people demonstrated here on Wednesday against the 
detention of an Iraqi reporter for hurling his shoes at US President 
George W Bush. Around 150 journalists also demonstrated outside the 
press club here on Wednesday to demand the release of Zaidi, who risks 
up to seven years in jail under the Iraqi law.

The Iraqi television reporter was swiftly wrestled to the ground after 
the incident was beaten by security guards, suffering a broken arm and 
ribs. “We condemn torture on Muntazer al-Zaidi and demand his immediate 
release and we also express our solidarity with him” said protester 
Nasir Naqvi.

Another 50 people held a protest in Karachi carrying a 10-feet model of 
a shoe labelled with the words “for Bush with love.” “We are with you 
Muntazer. The whole Muslim world is with you,” the protesters shouted. 
Both demonstrations passed off peacefully.







http://www.breitbart.com/image.php?id=iafp081218141810.fv3cd9o7p1&show_article=1

Palestinian journalists stage a bare-foot protest in Bethlehem


Palestinian journalists stage a bare-foot protest in Bethlehem to show 
solidarity with the Iraqi reporter who hurled his shoes at US President 
George W. Bush. Security agents destroyed the shoes during checks to 
ensure they did not contain explosives, the investigating judge said on 
Thursday.








http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20081122/ZNYT03/811223009/1016/NEWS?Title=Protests_in_Baghdad_on_U_S__Pact

Protests in Baghdad on U.S. Pact
STEPHEN FARRELL
Published: Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 4:12 a.m.
BAGHDAD — More than 10,000 Iraqis, mostly supporters of the radical 
Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, gathered in Baghdad’s Firdos Square on 
Friday to protest the security agreement with the United States that is 
scheduled for a vote in Parliament on Monday.

Click to enlarge
Followers of the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Firdous Square in 
central Baghdad on Friday for a mass prayer to protest a proposed 
U.S.-Iraqi security pact.
Joao Silva for The New York Times

Demonstrators hanged a black-hooded effigy of President Bush from a 
column with powerful symbolism: it supported the statue of Saddam 
Hussein that was toppled by American troops in April 2003, after Baghdad 
fell.
Removing the hood to beat the effigy with a shoe, a particularly deep 
Iraqi insult, they put a whip in its right hand and in its left a 
briefcase on which was written, “The security agreement is shame and 
dishonor.”
The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has signed the 
pact, which places new limits on the powers of American troops in Iraq 
but provides for them to stay in the country up to the end of 2011. The 
final steps are parliamentary approval, and affirmation by the country’s 
three-man Presidency Council.
But opposition has been heated, particularly from the Sadr political 
bloc. And even if Mr. Maliki’s ruling coalition secures the necessary 
votes, Iraq’s most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali 
al-Sistani, has indicated that he believes the deal will be acceptable 
to the Iraqi people only if it achieves some degree of consensus.
This means Mr. Maliki must somehow calm the opposition’s fury, as well 
as get some support from Iraq’s minority Sunnis, many of whom are 
nervous about seeing American troops depart, fearing Iran and its Shiite 
allies in Baghdad.
In Firdos Square, protesters sat in rows of 50 stretching back more than 
half a mile. They filled Sadoun Street, beside the Palestine Hotel and 
in front of the colonnaded traffic circle where five years ago American 
troops pulled down the dictator’s statue in scenes televised around the 
world.
While the rally was billed as a cross-community effort, to be attended 
by Shiite and Sunni clerics, the vast majority of those in attendance 
were Sadrists. Many had come from Mr. Sadr’s stronghold of Sadr City, 
and the chants the crowd took up were “Moktada, Moktada,” “No, no to 
America,” and “No, no to the agreement.”
Sadrist officials said they opposed the security agreement because they 
did not believe assurances that the Americans would ever leave. They 
depicted the pact as a successor to colonial-era treaties with Western 
powers in the last century that, they said, had “sold the Arab and the 
Muslim lands into occupation.”
Reading from a statement by Mr. Sadr, one of his followers, Sheik 
Abdelhadi al-Mohammedawi, said: “America has not and will not be useful. 
It is the enemy of Islam.”
To cheers and cries of “God is great” he continued, “The love of Iraq 
calls us not to let the foot of the atheists on our ground and to not 
permit them to stay three minutes, not three years.”
Quteiba al-Nadawi, a Sunni preacher, told the crowd: “We have rejected 
this agreement from the beginning. We are supporting our brothers the 
Sadrists, and we are supporting all honorable Iraqis who reject this 
agreement. We need freedom for our people and unity for Iraqis.”
Members 0f Iraqi security forces took up positions on rooftops and a 
mosque overlooking Firdos Square, with snipers and machine gunners 
keeping an eye on the crowd. There was no sign of American forces, and 
the protest was peaceful throughout.






http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/37862

Iraqi Citizens Stage Huge Protest Against Continued US Occupation
Submitted by Chip on Sun, 2008-11-23 07:53.
• Iraq
The US media present SOFA as nearly a done deal, opposed by only a 
minority of Sadrists in the parliament. You don't hear about the 
protests of over a million people in our mainstream news against the 
proposed Status of Forces Agreement in Iraq. These photos never quite 
make it to the front page (or any other) of our "free press."
Related Coverage:
Iraqis Pour into Street to Protest U.S. Security "Agreement" | Middle 
East Online
Thousands of Iraqis, mainly Shiite followers of the cleric Moqtada 
al-Sadr, gathered in Baghdad Friday to protest a security accord that 
would allow U.S. troops to remain in Iraq until 2011.
The crowds swarmed into central Baghdad's Firdoos Square, where a large 
statue of executed President Saddam Hussein was torn down by U.S. troops 
a few weeks after the March 2003 invasion.
The protestors hung an effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush carrying 
a suitcase labelled "security agreement" from the abstract statue that 
now stands in the center of the square.
A sign pinned to the effigy reflected the mood of the protestors: "The 
security agreement is shameful and humiliating."
The agreement, which was approved by the Iraqi cabinet on Sunday after 
nearly a year of hard-nosed negotiations, would govern the status of 
some 150,000 U.S. at the end of the year.
It would require all foreign forces to withdraw from Iraqi cities and 
towns by the end of June 2009 and to withdraw completely from Iraq by 
the end of 2011.
It has drawn fire from most of Iraqis, who are against signing any 
agreement that would seek to legitimize the U.S. occupation.
"No, No, to the agreement!" the crowds chanted beneath a huge banner 
with a picture of bloody, cuffed hands reaching out from a map of Iraq 
and three keys labelled with American, Israeli, and British flags.
Other banners in English read "No for the security agreement that makes 
Iraq a prisoner and without sovereignty" and "Occupied forces must leave 
Iraq now."
"We are following the call of Moqtada al-Sadr to pray and demonstrate 
against the accord and against the occupation," said Nawfal Faraj, 36, a 
civil servant.
"This agreement is not clear. It allows the occupation forces to stay in 
Iraq."
Sheikh Talal al-Saadi, the imam of Baghdad's revered Kadhimiyah shrine 
and one of several clerics in the crowd, said he had heeded Sadr's call 
to demonstrate against the "humiliating" agreement.
"The agreement allows the occupiers to stay three years in Iraq, while 
(president-elect Barack) Obama wants to withdraw them within 16 months. 
We want the Iraqi government to be patient and to wait for Obama's 
order," he said.
Another imam, the Sadrist sheikh Abelhadi al-Mohammedawi, then led the 
thousands of protestors in Friday prayers before reading a statement 
from Sadr.
"If they don't leave the country I am going to be with you to make them 
leave in a way that suits you, as long as it doesn't go against the 
religion. And if they leave I will be with you to protect the Iraqi 
people," Sadr said in the statement.
The Sadrists had called on both Sunnis and Shiites to attend the 
demonstration and Sunni imam Quteiba al-Nadawi led the crowd in chants 
of "Yes, yes to unity … Yes, yes to Iraq … No to submission, No to this 
agreement!"
The pact has been loudly debated on the floor of the Iraqi parliament in 
recent days, where the 30-member Sadrist bloc has sought to derail it.
Most Iraqis are opposed to any kind of deal with Washington that would 
keep American forces in the country, and that would give U.S. forces 
immunity from being punished when they commit war crimes against Iraqis.






http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/11/23/2003429353

Al-Sadr followers protest proposed pact with the US

AP, BAGHDAD
Sunday, Nov 23, 2008, Page 7
Thousands of followers of a radical Shiite cleric protested a proposed 
US-Iraqi security deal on Friday, burning an effigy of US President 
George W. Bush in the same square where Iraqis beat a toppled Saddam 
Hussein statue five years ago.
Chanting and waving flags, Moqtada al-Sadr’s followers filled Firdous 
Square to protest the pact that would allow US troops to stay for three 
more years.

The demonstration followed two days of protests in parliament by al-Sadr 
loyalists, who disrupted readings of the proposed agreement.

Parliament is scheduled to vote on the pact tomorrow, but presidential 
spokesman Naseer al-Ani told Iraq’s Sharqiyah television late on Friday 
that the vote might be delayed until after the Muslim feast of Eid 
al-Adha early next month.

“It will need more time. Perhaps until after Eid al-Adha,” he told the 
Dubai-based station without explanation.

The legislature is expected to go into recess later this month ahead of 
Eid al-Adha, when scores of lawmakers travel to Saudi Arabia for the 
annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

Despite the opposition of at least three small parliamentary factions, 
the pact is expected to pass in the Shiite-led parliament when it comes 
up for a vote.

Al-Sadr, who controls a group of 30 lawmakers in the 275-seat 
parliament, views the deal as a surrender to US interests. But 
supporters say the pact will eventually lead to full sovereignty.

If al-Sadr’s group and other legislators opposed to the pact lose by a 
thin margin, they might attempt to turn their anti-US message into a 
defining issue in provincial elections on Jan. 31 and general elections 
late next year.

Al-Sadr’s influence in Iraq, however, has dipped from the days when 
militiamen loyal to him battled US forces and were seen as protectors of 
Shiites against Sunni militants and his anti-US message earned him and 
his followers strong nationalist credentials.

Al-Sadr, believed to be in Iran, was not at the protest, though his 
representative read a sermon he wrote that called the US “the enemy of 
Islam.”

“The government must know that it is the people who help it in the good 
and the bad times. If it throws the occupier out, all the Iraqi people 
will stand by it,” the sermon read, using common rhetoric for the US.

Al-Sadr said that his followers in both his movement’s armed and 
peaceful factions would continue to work for the removal of US forces.

The protesters placed the Bush effigy on the same pedestal where US 
Marines toppled the ousted dictator’s statue in one of the iconic images 
of the 2003 US-led invasion.

After a mass prayer, demonstrators pelted the Bush effigy with plastic 
water bottles and sandals. One man hit it in the face with his sandal. 
The effigy fell head first into the crowd and protesters jumped on it 
before setting it ablaze.

The uproar this week suggests that the security pact could remain 
divisive as the country struggles for reconciliation after years of war.

For Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Dawa party and the Supreme 
Islamic Iraqi Council, its senior government partner, the margin of 
support is almost as important as the victory itself. A narrow passage 
will cast doubt on the legitimacy of the new terms governing the US 
troop presence.







http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404800152&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Nov 21, 2008 22:49
Iraqi Shi'ites burn Bush effigy to protest US security pact
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD

Thousands of followers of a radical Shi'ite cleric protested a proposed 
US-Iraqi security deal Friday, burning an effigy of US President George 
W. Bush in the same square where Iraqis beat a toppled Saddam Hussein 
statue five years ago.
Chanting and waving flags, Muqtada al-Sadr's followers filled Firdous 
Square to protest the pact that would allow American troops to stay for 
three more years.
The demonstration followed two days of protests in parliament by al-Sadr 
loyalists who disrupted readings of the proposed agreement.
Parliament is scheduled to vote on the pact Monday, but presidential 
spokesman Naseer al-Ani told Iraq's Sharqiyah television late Friday 
that the vote might be delayed until after the Muslim feast of Eid 
al-Adha, which falls in early December.






http://articles.latimes.com/2008/nov/22/world/fg-iraq22

Iraqi protesters burn George Bush effigy where Saddam Hussein statue 
once stood
The crowd of thousands was protesting plans to keep American troops in 
Iraq through 2011.
By Tina Susman and Caesar Ahmed
November 22, 2008
At the same spot where U.S. forces helped Iraqis topple a statue of 
Saddam Hussein in 2003, protesters today tore down an effigy of 
President Bush and set it afire in a protest over plans to keep American 
troops in Iraq through 2011.
Demonstrators began arriving at central Baghdad's Firdos Square just 
after sunrise, some having walked hours across the capital. Most came 
from Sadr City, the stronghold of the man who called for the gathering, 
Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr.
Iraqi army snipers perched on rooftops along the broad avenues leading 
to the square, a public gathering spot in the middle of a traffic 
roundabout decorated with fountains and greenery. The effigy of Bush, 
wearing a suit and tie and carrying a briefcase, dangled for hours as 
the crowd, which stretched for several city blocks, knelt in prayer and 
listened to clerics denounce the Status of Forces Agreement.
The pact, which is expected to be voted on in Iraqi's parliament next 
week, sets a Dec. 31, 2011 deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces 
from Iraq and requires American combat troops to withdraw from Iraqi 
cities, towns and villages by the end of next June. But people 
interviewed in the crowd insisted the pact did not contain any 
withdrawal deadlines. Others said that whatever the pact said, they did 
not trust the U.S. or Iraqi governments to live up to it.
"They want to keep extending and extending," Bassim Hamoud, dressed in a 
lavender shirt and pressed beige trousers, said as he prepared to pass 
one of the Iraqi army checkpoints set up on the edge of the rally. "If 
there was a concrete time limit, we would go for it."
Asked what he wanted that time limit to be for a U.S. withdrawal, Hamoud 
replied, "We want them to leave today."
Protesters' comments reflected both the lack of knowledge of the pact 
and the distrust many Iraqis feel toward the Americans and the Iraqi 
government as a result of unmet promises since the U.S.-led invasion. At 
the time of the Hussein statue's toppling, most Iraqis were not 
expecting that nearly six years down the line, they still would be 
living in a city with spotty electricity, sewage running through the 
streets of their neighborhoods, military checkpoints choking traffic and 
bombs going off regularly.
Loyalists of hard-line anti-U.S. leaders such as Sadr say if the 
Americans left, the violence would decrease and Iraqis would be able to 
fix their own problems. As long as the United States has forces here, 
they say, Iraq never will be sovereign.







http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2008-11-21/Bush_burned_effigy_destroyed_in_Iraqi_protest.html

Bush burned: effigy destroyed in Iraqi protest
e-mail story to a friendprint version
21 November, 2008, 19:45
Thousands of protestors against the U.S. presence in Iraq have burned an 
effigy of President George Bush in the same square where they toppled a 
statue of Saddam Hussein five years ago.
Yahoo StumbleUpon Google Live Technorati
Scoop del.icio.us Digg Sphinn Furl Reddit
Most of the protestors were followers of the Shiite cleric Muqtada 
al-Sadr, who view the American military as occupiers.
The demonstration comes after two days of heated protest in parliament 
by al-Sadr loyalists and other small parties arguing that the new 
security pact, which would ensure a U.S. presence in Iraq for three more 
years, was a “surrender to U.S. interests”.
In a remarkable turn of events, the effigy, with a banner standing next 
to it reading “shame and humiliation”, was placed on the very site where 
fallen dictator Saddam Hussein's statue stood. It was torn down by U.S. 
marines and Iraqis in one of the most iconic moments of the Iraq war.
Protestors stoned the effigy with water bottles and sandals. One man 
used his shoe to strike Bush's face. Eventually the image fell and was 
stamped on before being set alight. Crowds chanted and waved flags while 
the effigy burned.
Security was extremely tight, with Army snipers present and al-Sadr 
loyalists all around as well.
Al-Sadr's representative read a sermon calling the US “an enemy of 
Islam” and urging parliament not to pass the new security pact.
“The government must know that it is the people who help it in the good 
and the bad times. If it throws the occupier out, all the Iraqi people 
will stand by it,” read the sermon.
Among the crowds were protestors holding banners reading “No, no to the 
agreement of humiliation”.
If the pact passes through parliament it will go to the president and 
his two deputies for ratification.







http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/112208a.html

Iraqi Shiites Protest Extended US Stay
By TheRealNews.com
November 22, 2008
The proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact, with its 2011 deadline for U.S. 
military withdrawal, is slated for a vote by the Iraqi parliament on 
Nov. 24, but popular opposition continues from many Iraqi Shiites who 
want a faster U.S. departure.
Thousands of followers of Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr converged 
on a central Baghdad square for a mass prayer, to protest the status of 
forces agreement.
McClatchy correspondent Adam Asher who was on the scene says what 
concerns many Iraqis is "whether Muqtada al-Sadr will call off his 
cease-fire if the [status of forces agreement] passes parliament.







http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/11/22/news0871.htm

US troop pact protest paralyses Baghdad

Reuters, Baghdad

Iraqi forces shut streets in Baghdad and placed snipers on rooftops on 
Friday before a protest by followers of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr against a 
pact allowing U.S. troops to remain for three more years.

Scores of soldiers with armored vehicles and sniffer dogs blocked off 
Saadoun Street through the center of the capital ahead of the march 
after Friday prayers later in the day.

A few hundred early arrivals chanted "No, No USA!" They waved Iraqi 
flags and carried portraits of Sadr, a Shi'ite cleric who led popular 
uprisings against U.S. forces, in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

The Iraqi government signed the pact earlier this week and parliament is 
expected to vote on it next week. The Sadrists oppose it outright and 
other groups have expressed reservations.

Senior Sadr aide Hazim al-Araji prepared for the rally under the gaze of 
rooftop snipers in Baghdad's central Firdos square, where U.S. troops 
toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein shortly after the invasion.

"Today is the day of Iraqi unity among Arabs, Kurds, all communities of 
Iraq, to reject the security pact. These people are coming out to prove 
the security pact is worthless," he told Reuters.

"Of course it will be very big," he said of the rally. "One hundred 
percent, it will be peaceful."

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ridiculed the Sadrist stance, saying 
Sadrists had demanded a firm date for U.S. troops to withdraw and when 
he delivered it they opposed it.

The pact requires U.S. troops to leave the streets of Iraqi towns by the 
middle of next year and to leave the country by December 31, 2011. U.S. 
forces will need Iraqi warrants to arrest people and U.S. contractors 
will be subjected to Iraqi law.

The firm withdrawal date was a major concession from the outgoing U.S. 
administration of President George W. Bush, who long opposed setting any 
deadline, and is a sign of the increasing confidence of the Iraqi 
government in negotiations.

Maliki launched a crackdown on Sadr's followers earlier this year, 
driving his black-masked Mehdi Army fighters off the streets of Baghdad 
and cities of the Shi'ite south.

U.S. officials say Sadr has been in neighboring Iran since last year.

Violence in Iraq has fallen to levels unseen since the early days after 
the invasion. But militants are able to carry out bomb attacks. A 
roadside bomb at a checkpoint in Baghdad's southern Doura neighborhood 
killed three people and wounded 15 early on Friday.





http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/11/15/iraq.security.pact/index.html?eref=rss_world

November 15, 2008 -- Updated 0733 GMT (1533 HKT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for a 
massive prayer service and a peaceful demonstration in Baghdad next week 
against the U.S.-led presence in Iraq.
In a letter, al-Sadr called for a pan-Muslim Friday prayer sermon in 
central Baghdad's Firdous Square next week, instead of separate services 
in individual mosques.
After the prayers, al-Sadr said participants should protest peacefully 
against the proposed security agreement under negotiation between the 
Iraqi and U.S. governments.
"Let them all be united to foil the signing of the agreement that wants 
to sell Iraq to the occupier just like our holy lands in Palestine and 
other Arab and Islamic lands were sold before, and let that be next 
Friday hoping that we clear our conscience in front of God and his 
prophet and let everyone, after they finish the sacred ritual, gather 
for a peaceful demonstration to express their rejection of the 
agreement," al-Sadr wrote in the letter.
Sheikh Hazem al-Araji, a senior member of the Sadrist movement, told CNN 
the letter was read in Baghdad, Kufa, Amara, Nasiriya and other Iraqi 
cities before thousands of worshippers who attended Friday prayer services.
The United States and Iraq have been negotiating a proposed status of 
forces agreement for months.
The pact, which would set the terms for U.S. troops in Iraq after the 
U.N. mandate on their presence expires at the end of this year, has been 
controversial among many Iraqi officials.
Many say they will oppose any deal that hints of compromising the 
country's sovereignty.
Muslim cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said in a statement on his 
official Web site this week that he will "forbid any stance that targets 
the sovereignty of Iraq no matter how small it is."





http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/104097/tens_of_thousands_of_iraqis_protest_u.s._plan_to_stay_until_2011/

Tens of Thousands of Iraqis Protest U.S. Plan to Stay Until 2011
By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!. Posted October 22, 2008.


An interview with Iraq correspondent Patrick Cockburn and Iraqi blogger 
Raed Jarrar on the Status of Forces Agreement.
Amy Goodman: The Iraqi cabinet is examining a controversial draft law 
that would allow U.S. forces to stay in Iraq for three more years. U.S. 
military chief Michael Mullen warned Tuesday Iraq could risk "losses of 
significant consequence" if the deal is not approved quickly. The U.S. 
ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, also defended the deal Monday, saying 
it "fully restores Iraq's sovereignty."
But tens of thousands of Iraqis demonstrated against the proposed Status 
of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, on Saturday.
…
AG: Patrick Cockburn, you're just back from Iraq. There were tens of 
thousands of people protesting the agreement this weekend. Michael 
Mullen, the U.S. military chief there, bluntly warned Iraq on Tuesday it 
risks security "losses of significant consequence" unless it approves 
the agreement. The deadline is -- UN mandate runs out December 31st.
Patrick Cockburn: Yes, and I think that the protests against it, I mean, 
in this case, by the followers of Muqtada al-Sadr, and the general mood 
in Iraq, it illustrates, first of all, the occupation was never popular, 
from day one five years ago, and it's still very unpopular. So it's 
going to be very difficult to get this through. You can feel the 
opposition to it mounting in all -- lots of corners. And the people who 
negotiated it, when I was talking to them in Baghdad, seemed to live in 
a bit of a Never-Never-Land about how this agreement was going to go 
down among the broad mass of Iraqis.
AG: Your book is called Muqtada al-Sadr and the Battle for the Future of 
Iraq. How significant is his opposition to this?
PC: Well, you know, the Sadrists, Muqtada's movement, is the only sort 
of mass movement among the Shia, and it has shown that it has the 
ability to mobilize tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people 
against the accord. So there are signs over this week that the 
government has been influenced, the Iraqi government has been 
influenced, by the demonstrations and the general unpopularity of the 
agreement.
…

AG: -- throughout the whole thing, relief that maybe there is no war 
going on.
PC: Sure. I mean, I think it's extraordinary. I mean, there's an obvious 
reason. First of all, the mortgage crisis from March, and afterwards the 
great financial crisis, concerns people. But I think also that the, if 
you like, propaganda about the surge, giving the impression that Iraq 
somehow had returned to peace, has had quite an impact. But, you know, 
it's extraordinary, in Baghdad, people -- you ask an Iraqi what the 
situation is, they say, well, it's a bit better. What they mean is 
better than the bloodbath than we had two or three years ago, but it's 
still the most dangerous country in the world. You know, we have a 
couple of bombs, twenty people killed in a day. Nobody in the outside 
world notices, there's a large American army there. So the crisis which 
has been going on in the last five years is still going on, and the war 
is still going on. And I imagine that this will become more apparent 
after the election again. But, yes, it is rather extraordinary the way 
it's sunk from the headlines.
AG: You write that Iraqis are staying in exile, too afraid to return.
PC: Sure. This is the best barometer on what's really happening in Iraq. 
You have 4.7 million Iraqis, out of a population of about 26 million, 
who have fled homes either within the country or 2.2 million without. 
They're desperate to go back, but they know it's too dangerous to. This 
is what really tells one that the situation is still pretty grim there.






http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/38201

Thousands protest against US-Iraq deal
Baghdad, 18 October 2008 ( AFP )
Angry supporter of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr chanted anti-US 
slogans and burnt effigies of American leaders in a mass rally here on 
Saturday.
Protesters urged Iraqi lawmakers to reject a planned US-Iraq security deal.
Effigies of US President George W. Bush with bandaged head and fractured 
right arm and of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were set ablaze 
along with several American flags as protestors chanted anti-US slogans.
Tens of thousands of protestors spat out their anger at the US during a 
protest march which began at the cleric’s Sadr City bastion in east 
Baghdad and ended at nearby Mustansiriyah Square, where the effigies 
were torched. “No, No, to America! No, No to the devil!” shouted crowds 
of men, women and children as they walked the three kilometre (two mile) 
route through the dusty streets of Sadr City to the square.
Carrying Iraqi flags and banners of the Sadr movement, the demonstrators 
demanded an end to the US occupation of Iraq.
“Get out occupier! We demand an end to the occupation!” they shouted.
Large numbers of Sadr supporters had gathered since Friday night at Sadr 
City’s Mudhaffar Square where the protest march began, while many 
arrived at the venue from several Shiite regions of Iraq early on Saturday.
“We are marching to reject the occupation,” said Karim Kadhim, a Shia 
from Najaf.
“Would America like to be occupied by any other country? Would America 
like its sons to be attacked? Why are they occupying our country?” he asked.
“They have been lying for the past five years. They told us they are 
coming to free us and go. But they are still lying.” After the burning 
of the effigies and flags at Mustansiriyah Square, protestors chanted 
slogans praising Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia.
“The Mahdi Army is still powerful and Sadr is still powerful,” they 
chanted, referring to the cleric’s feared 60,000-strong militia. The 
organisers of the march also read out a statement by Sadr in which he 
urged the Iraqi parliament to reject the proposed security deal with 
Washington.





http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/37763

Sadrists in Wassit protest security pact
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Baghdad, 12 October 2008 ( Voices of Iraq )
Hundreds of the Sadrist Movement followers in Wassit demonstrated at 
central Kut city after today’s Friday prayers, condemning the Iraqi-U.S. 
long-term security agreement and the assassination of a Sadrist lawmaker 
on Thursday, said a Movement source in the city.
“The demonstration, which started from the Kut Grand Mosque and ended at 
the city’s Martyr al-Sadr Office, denounced the Iraqi-U.S. long-term 
security agreement, military foreign presence in Iraq and the 
assassination of Dr. Salih al-Igaili,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.He 
added during the demonstration that “a release issued by (Shiite leader) 
Sayyed Muqtada al-Sadr calling on his followers to go to Baghdad on 
Saturday, October 18th 2008, to demonstrate against the security 
agreement and foreign forces’ presence in Iraq was read out”.Kut, the 
capital city of Wassit province, lies 180 km southeast of Baghdad.







http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/37770

Angry protesters stage demonstration in Baghdad’s southern suburb
Baghdad, 12 October 2008 ( Voices of Iraq )
Angry people in Baghdad’s southern suburb of Doura ran to the street 
after a car bomb hit their district on Friday, witnesses reported.
Local witnesses said scores of people staged demonstrations in Baghdad’s 
southern suburb of al-Doura following the car bomb that ripped through a 
market in Abu Dishir district in spite of strict security cordon imposed 
by U.S.-Iraqi forces.
They said demonstrators set tyres ablaze to protest the bombing that
claimed 35 casualties along with material damage to many shops in the 
district.
Earlier, a police source said ten individuals were killed and 25 wounded
by a car bomb in Baghdad’s southern al- suburb of al-Doura.





http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/38635

Anti-deal protests in Basra
Basra, 24 October 2008 ( Voices of Iraq )
The Sayyed al-Shohadaa (Master of Martyrs) Movement on Saturday staged a 
demonstration in Basra, where scores of civilians in the city marched to 
condemn the security agreement planned to be signed between Iraq and the 
United States.
“The movement organized the demonstration today in the central Basra 
area of al-Ishar to demand imposing Iraq’s sovereignty in the security 
pact,” a protester, Hassan Kareem, told Aswat al-Iraq.
The deal is triggering a row amongst government, religious and popular 
circles in Iraq. Some government officials say hat the U.S. side has 
offered great concessions to ink a final draft of the agreement while 
others claim that it still contains articles undermining Iraq’s 
sovereignty and independence.
The protesters called for “guaranteeing the Iraqi people’s rights in the 
pact and not to allow foreign and U.S. troops in Iraq to have a free 
hand to act outside the parameters of the law”.
The eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City, the stronghold of Shiite 
leader Muqtada al-Sadr’s movement and Mahdi Army militias, had witnessed 
10 days ago a similar demonstration in which hundreds of Sadr supporters 
expressed rejection of the security deal.
The agreement, if endorsed, will govern the presence of U.S. forces in 
Iraq as the UN mandate granted to the United States will expire late 
this year.
According the draft pact, the U.S. presence in Iraq will continue until 
December 31, 2008, the date after which the Iraqi government would be 
entitled to ask the U.S. administration to withdraw its troops from Iraq.





http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=NzE2NjU4OTA5

Shiites protest US-Iraqi pact
Published Date: October 26, 2008
BAGHDAD: About 300 Shiites rallied yesterday in the southern city of 
Basra against a US-Iraqi security pact currently under negotiation. In 
Baghdad, bombs killed an Iraqi army brigadier general and a soldier, 
police said. The protesters were members of a local Muslim charity 
linked to Iraq's largest Shiite political party, the Supreme Islamic 
Iraqi Council, or SIIC. The council has not decided whether to support 
the security agreement and its decision will be crucial in determining 
whether it wins parlia
mentary approval. Critics oppose the pact as an infringement of national 
sovereignty. Demonstrators raised banners that read "No to the agreement 
of humiliation" while chanting "No to America." Tensions have been 
rising as the Dec 31 deadline to reach agreement on the pact approaches.

The proposed security pact calls for all US combat forces to be removed 
from Iraqi cities by June 2009 and for all forces to leave the country 
by the end of 2011, unless both sides agree to an extension. Opposition 
from members of Sayyid al-Shuhada, a charitable organization in Basra is 
significant because the protests against the deal so far have largely 
been led by followers of anti-US cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr. Iraq's Cabinet 
decided Tuesday to ask the US for changes to the draft agreement as key 
Shiite l
awmakers warned the deal stands little chance of approval as it stands. 
The decision also raised doubts that the agreement can be ratified 
before a new American president is elected next month.

The deal is aimed at replacing the UN mandate for foreign forces in 
Iraq, which expires on Dec 31. In violence yesterday, a bomb attached to 
a car exploded near Andalus Square in central Baghdad, killing the 
general and wounding his guard and a civilian bystander, according to 
police and hospital officials. Defense Ministry officials could not 
immediately be reached for confirmation or more details. Elsewhere in 
Baghdad, a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol, killing one 
soldier and wounding three
others, a police official said. The Iraqi officials all spoke on 
condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the 
information. - AP






http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=101364

Prepared for tomorrow’s demonstration – Sadrists
October 17, 2008 - 02:13:48

BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: A senior Sadrist official on Monday said that 
preparations were finalized to render success Saturday’s massive 
demonstration, which would call for the departure of U.S. forces from 
Iraq and condemn the long-term Iraq-U.S. security agreement.

“The movement formed several committees to arrange how demonstrators 
leave and return,” Sayyed Hazem al-Aaraji, a senior figure of Shiite 
leader Muqtad al-Sadr’s movement, told Aswat al-Iraq.

“Instructions were made to demonstrators that it would be necessary to 
raise Iraqi flags and chant slogans that reject the occupation and 
express the unity of Iraq’s people and land,” he said.

“Demonstrators coming from other provinces have started arriving in 
Baghdad, to participate in the demonstration that was recently postponed 
for security reasons,” he added.

“This demonstration would be an annual occasion arranged by Sadrists to 
express their stances regarding the occupation,” he noted.

On October 15, 2008, Ahmed al-Massoudi, a lawmaker loyal to Sadr, said 
that the U.S. army forces closed down the outlets of the Shiite Sadr 
City in eastern Baghdad to prevent demonstrations to be staged by 
Sadrists this weekend.
Sadr’s parliamentary bloc has 30 out of a total 275 seats in the Iraqi 
council of representatives.
MH (S)/AmR





http://www.myantiwar.org/view/164196.html

U.S. troops close down outlets of Sadr City-MP
October 15, 2008 - 02:59:06
BAGHDAD/Aswat al-Iraq: A lawmaker from a bloc loyal to Shiite cleric 
Muqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday said the U.S army forces closed down the 
outlets of Shiite Slum Sadr City to prevent demonstrations to be staged 
by Sadrists this weekend.
“U.S troops closed down the outlets of Sadr City, preventing entrance 
and departure to the sprawling slum,” MP Ahmed al-Massoudi from Sadrist 
bloc loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told Aswat al-Iraq.
“The measures are attempts to thwart 1 million-strong demonstration to 
be held by Sadrists on Saturday,” he stressed.
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for staging demonstrations to 
protest the U.S-Iraq security agreement to be signed between the two 
countries to regulate the presence of foreign troops in Iraq when the UN 
made expected by the end of December this year.
The U.S. and Iraq have been negotiating their own bilateral accord for 
months but have so far failed to seal the deal because of disagreements 
on whether American soldiers should be immune from Iraqi law when off-duty.
The lawmaker called for the government “to intervene and to lift the 
closure”.
The Sadrist bloc, holding 30 out of the parliament’s total 275 seats, 
held several rallies to protest the security deal with the U.S. and also 
to denounce the visits of U.S. officials to Iraq.
AM(S)






http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=103640

6 killed, wounded in Dalouiya clashes
November 25, 2008 - 09:49:39
SALAH AL-DIN / Aswat al-Iraq: Six persons were killed or wounded during 
armed clashes that erupted between civilians and a group of armed men in 
Salah al-Din’s Dalouiya district, a police source said on Tuesday.
“Clashes broke out between residents of Bishkan village, eastern 
Dalouiya, and Sahwa council fighters on the one hand, and a group of 
armed men on the other hand following yesterday’s abduction of a 
farmer,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
“Two young men, including a brother of the kidnapped farmer, were killed 
and four others, including two Sahwa members, were wounded in the 
clashes,” the source noted.
Salah al-Din has an area of 24,751 square kilometers (9,556.4 sq mi). 
The estimated population for 2003 was 2,146,500 people.
Located in Central Iraq, north of Baghdad, it is a mainly Sunni province 
with only two Shiite districts, namely Balad and al-Dujail. Its capital 
city is Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. 
It also includes other important districts like Baiji, north of Tikrit, 
175 km north of Baghdad.
SS (S)








http://www.myantiwar.org/view/166100.html

Thousands attend anti-Kurdish protests
Web posted at: 11/16/2008 1:35:27
Source ::: AFP
TIKRIT, IRAQ: Thousands of Sunni and Shia Arabs took to the streets 
across Iraq yesterday to defend Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki against 
criticism from leaders of the country’s Kurdish minority.
Demonstrations were held in the northern Sunni town of Tikrit—the 
hometown of executed dictator Saddam Hussein—the once-restive Sunni town 
of Hawijah, and the mostly Shiite southern cities of Karbala, Najaf, 
Nasiriyah, Samawah.
They came out to protest remarks made earlier this week by Kurdish 
regional president Massud Barzani, who accused Maliki of illegally 
allying with tribes in areas with large Kurdish populations to expand 
the power of the state.
In his remarks Barzani had compared the tribal alliances—which Maliki 
refers to as “Support Councils”—to the so-called Jackass Brigades of 
Kurds who fought for Saddam against Kurdish rebels from the 1980s up 
until 2003.
The dispute has exposed yet another potentially explosive faultline in a 
country still scarred by sectarian tensions that until a few months ago 
had transformed large parts of Iraq into grisly battlefields. Most of 
Iraq’s roughly five million Kurds live in the three northernmost 
provinces, which are governed by Barzani and are largely autonomous.







http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/40352/refid/RSS-latest-24-11-2008

Mosul Protesters Demand Forming Sahwa Councils, Signing SOFA
Ninewa, 22 November 2008
Hundreds of Arab tribesmen in the districts west and south of Ninewa 
province on Saturday staged a demonstration in the heart of the city






http://www.alsabaah.com/paper.php?source=akbar&mlf=copy&sid=73555

Demonstrations in Mosil and Faluja support pact
ÇáÊÇÑíÎ: Sunday, November 23
ÇÓã ÇáÕÝÍÉ: Alsabah Newspaper
Mosil-Ramadi , Nov.23, P.4
Hundreds of tribesmen in the cities of Mosil and Faluja demonstrated 
yesterday to show their support for security agreement.

The demonstrators expressed their support for the government's intention 
to specify the multi national forces position to facilitate the 
withdrawal process from the country according to the agreement.
The demonstration in Mosil occurred at the center of the city while the 
participants came all over the province's districts.In Faluja, Tribes' 
chiefs and awakening groups' leaders were from the demonstrators besides 
the local inhabitants





http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/40579/refid/RSS-latest-26-11-2008

Syrian Lawyers Cease Work for Hour in Protest of US-Iraq Security Agreement
Damascus, 26 November 2008
The Syrian lawyers on Tuesday temporarily ceased work in courts across 
the country from 10 to 11 AM, as called for by the Syrian Bar Association




http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Medical&set_id=1&click_id=117&art_id=nw20081013185932985C709616

Iraqi doctors protest by closing 200 clinics

October 13 2008 at 07:45PM

Related Articles
• Baghdad doctors may carry guns


Baghdad - More than 200 Iraqi doctors in the city of Karbala who say 
they have received death threats after unsuccessful medical procedures 
have closed their clinics in protest, their leader said on Monday.

"More than 200 doctors closed their clinics and stopped their work after 
they received death threats," Ali Abu Taheen, head of the doctors' 
association in the southern city, said in a statement emailed to AFP.

The doctors, who also work in Karbala's largest public hospital, the 
Al-Hussein, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, say they will strike until 
the government guarantees their safety.

Angry families of patients who died during surgery must stop asking for 
financial compensation and recognise that medical procedures often do 
not meet expectations, Taheen said.

Angry families of patients who died during surgery must stop asking for 
financial compensation
"Everyone knows surgery is dangerous and the chance of success is often 
very low, let alone not speaking of the will of God," Taheen said, 
adding that complex surgery often has to be carried out with rudimentary 
devices.

The doctors have presented the government with a list of five demands.

They called for police protection, for death threats to count as 
terrorist acts and for legal support in handling patient claims.

Tribal leaders should show respect for doctors while relatives of 
patients should sign pre-surgery agreements banning them from resorting 
to violence if medical procedures are unsuccessful.

Last month the Iraqi government said it would allow doctors to carry 
guns in self-defence and pledged not to detain them during security 
operations.

'Everyone knows surgery is dangerous and the chance of success is often 
very low'
The move to grant weapons permits to doctors came in the light of the 
killing by insurgents of a large number of professional people, 
especially medical experts, since the 2003 US-led invasion. - Sapa-AFP





http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-23522-Iraq-Christians-protest-against-displacement.html

Iraq Christians protest against displacement
Thursday, October 16, 2008 08:40 GMT
In southern Baghdad, tens of Christians demonstrated along with tribal 
figures in protest to displacement and killings of Christians in Mosul.
The Secretary General of the national council for tribes and awakening 
leaders council Mostapha Kamel expressed solidarity with Christians. 
Meanwhile, an Iraqi official announced that around 1390 families and 
more than 8300 people have flown the province last week.
Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, based in 
Damascus, denounced displacement of Christians in Mosul saying that the 
situation is unfamiliar for Iraqis mainly Mosul residents noting that 
Christians and Muslims have lived together in peace, security, 
understanding and national unity despite attempts of Iraq enemies to 
spur discord.





http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7691458.stm

Saturday, 25 October 2008 00:33 UK

Iraqi party protests at shooting

Iraqi troops often carry out operations with close US support
The largest Sunni party in Iraq says it is suspending all official 
contacts with US civilian and military personnel after the killing of a 
man in Fallujah.
The Iraqi Islamic Party said the dead man was one of its senior members 
and that he had been killed during a joint US-Iraqi raid on Friday.
The party alleged that the raid had been politically motivated.
The US military acknowledge that one man was killed and another arrested 
during a raid in the city.
Fallujah was the scene of heavy fighting four years ago but has become 
more peaceful since the US military and local tribes started 
co-operating in 2006.
In a statement on its website, the Iraqi Islamic Party said that a 
senior party member had been killed in his bed, and five others had been 
arrested, during a raid in the Halabsa area of Fallujah.
"The hidden political motive behind this incident is clear," it said.
As a consequence, the party had "decided to suspend all official 
contacts with the Americans, both military and civilians, until the 
party receives a reasonable explanation about what happened, along with 
an official apology".
It also demanded an assurance that those responsible would be punished, 
compensation for the victims and the release of the five detainees.
According to the US military, US-backed Iraqi soldiers killed an armed 
man who had opened fire when they went to arrest a "wanted insurgent 
leader suspected of training roadside bomb cells", the Associated Press 
reports.




http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24531467-12335,00.html

15 killed in insurgents' clash with Sunni tribes
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 From correspondents in Hilla | October 22, 2008
Article from: Australian Associated Press
AT least 15 men were killed and 14 more wounded today in fierce early 
morning clashes between insurgents and Sunni tribes in the central Iraq 
Shi'ite province of Babil.
The ferocious firefight came just two days ahead of a planned transfer 
of security control in Babil by US forces to Iraqi troops.
Police lieutenant Haider al-Lami from Hilla, the capital of Babil, said 
the battle broke out in Jurf al-Sakhr, a town located on the border of 
the Sunni Anbar province and Shi'ite Babil, around 5am (1300 AEDT) and 
raged for about two hours.
Lami said the fighting pitted suspected insurgents against members of 
the Sunni tribes Al-Osan and Al-Ojan, who had formed anti-al-Qaeda 
militia to oust the jihadists from their areas.
Doctor Mohammed al-Shammari from the nearby town of Iskandiriyah 
confirmed receiving the bodies of the victims.
Jurf al-Sakhr had been a violent town after insurgency broke out in Iraq 
following the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.
But since the anti-al-Qaeda groups were formed late last year, a measure 
of stability was restored.







http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=100608

Christian demonstration in Duhuk calls for self-rule
October 2, 2008 - 01:29:28
DUHUK / Aswat al-Iraq: Some 10,000 Christians demonstrated in the 
northern Iraq city of Duhuk on Thursday demanding a self-rule in their 
areas and restore an article granting them representation in local 
councils to the law on provincial elections.
“The demonstrators will present an official memo to the local 
authorities in Duhuk province to back their efforts and help them demand 
the rights of our people,” Jamal Zeno, the chief of the Chaldo-Assyrian 
Popular Council, told Aswat al-Iraq.
“The demonstrations will continue and calls to have self-rule for the 
Chaldeo-Assyrian people in their areas included into the constitution 
will never stop,” Zeno said.
He added that efforts will also continue to restore functioning of 
article 50, which was abrogated from the law on provincial councils 
election.
The Chaldo-Assyrian Popular Council, in a release received by Aswat 
al-Iraq, had appealed to the Iraqi Christians last week to organize 
marches of protest in all the areas where they reside.
The statement was issued after a meeting held by the council.
The call came after the Iraqi parliament endorsed last week a law on the 
provincial councils election, in which an item that guaranteed seats for 
Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities seats in the local 
councils by virtue of the quota system was abrogated.
The measure, however, drew outcry from the political and social 
organizations representing Christians and other minorities despite 
assurances by the parliament speaker and the UN Secretary-General’s 
representative after the law was passed.
Iraqi Christians, mostly speak a dialect of ancient Aramaic, are 
concentrated in the northern Iraqi provinces of Duhuk, Arbil and Ninewa.
Duhuk, also spelled Duhok, Dohuk Dehok or Dahok; is a city in the far 
northern part of Iraq to the borders with Turkey.
It has about 500,000 inhabitants, mostly consisting of Kurds and Assyrians.
According to some sources, the name “Duhuk” comes from Kurmanji Kurdish 
meaning “small village”.
Circled by mountains along the Tigris river, Duhuk, the third province 
with Iraq’s Kurdistan region, has a growing tourist industry.
Its population grew extremely since the 1990s as the rural population 
moved to the cities.
Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, Duhuk and Iraqi 
Kurdistan in general have remained the only safe places for foreigners.
AmR (S)






http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=101382

C.H.A.K to organize pro-Christian demonstration in Kirkuk
October 17, 2008 - 05:07:47
KIRKUK / Aswat al-Iraq: Head of the Kirkuk branch of the Center of 
Halabja Against Anfalization and Genocide of Kurds said that C.H.A.K 
will stage a demonstration in Kirkuk on Sunday in support of Christians 
who have become targets of killing and forced displacement by armed 
groups in Mosul city.

“We will demand the Iraqi government to exert serious efforts to protect 
Christians in Mosul,” Dhair Zengana told Aswat al-Iraq.

“The demonstrators will carry candles and flowers to show respect for 
Christian victims who fell in Mosul,” he said.

Mosul, 405 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad has been witnessing an 
escalation in violence against Christians since September 2008, 
prompting nearly 200 Christian families to flee the city for other 
places in or outside Ninewa province.

C.H.A.K is a non-governmental organization that was founded in 2002.
MH (P)/AmR






http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidZAWYA20081017085319/Reconstruction%20company%20stage%20demonstrations%20over%20salaries%20in%20Wassit/

Reconstruction company stage demonstrations over salaries in Wassit

16 October 2008
Wassit - Staff of a reconstruction company on Thursday staged 
demonstrations in Wassit to call for their inclusion in a new plan of 
counting differences in salaries.
"The Staff for Humurabi Contracting Company, in Wassit rallied in front 
of Provincial Council's building, calling for their inclusion in a plan 
giving government public servants differences of their low monthly 
salaries," Saad Jabbar, one of the demonstrators, told Aswat al-Iraq.
"The demonstrators called to re-work a scheme considering service period 
and university degree in a salary system and they also called to turn 
fixed contract employees into permanent posts," Jabbar noted.
Hamurabi Company, a subsidiary of the Housing and Reconstruction 
Ministry, has 500 employees including 76 working in fixed contract for 
six years with 100 thousands Iraqi Dinars (nearly $85) salary.
Kut, the capital city, Wassit, a border province and the main route from 
Baghdad to southern provinces, lies 180 km south Baghdad.







http://en.rian.ru/world/20081128/118603222.html

Afghans protest civilian death in Kabul
21:00 | 28/ 11/ 2008

KABUL, November 28 (RIA Novosti) - Crowds of angry Afghan citizens in 
Kabul took to the streets on Friday protesting the death of a civilian, 
who was killed by British troops after being allegedly mistaken for a 
suicide bomber, local officials said.
The accident in the Afghan capital occurred when British soldiers part 
of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) opened fire on a 
minivan, causing it to crash into a shop.
"The vehicle was riding from a subsidiary road to the main road. The 
British possibly thought these were suicide bombers and started firing 
at the vehicle," a local police chief, Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, said.
Four other civilians were also injured in the accident, he said. 
However, locals said four people had died.
Meanwhile, the ISAF rejected the claims of the shooting saying in a 
statement that it had "received reports that a civilian contractor had 
been involved in a traffic accident."
"On their arrival, the patrol found a large crowd surrounding the 
contractors' vehicles," the statement said.
Locals pelted police with stones and bricks and blocked the road to 
Jalalabad, chanting "death to Bush, death to America."
Afghanistan is facing its worst rise in violence since the U.S.-led 
international force overthrew the hard-line Islamic Taliban movement in 
2001.
The latest incident occurred a day after at least four people died when 
a suicide bomber attacked a convoy of foreign troops near the U.S. 
embassy in Kabul.






http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,RFERL,,AFG,4562d8cf2,4933af2ac,0.html

Afghans riot in Kabul after civilian killed
November 28, 2008
KABUL (Reuters) – Dozens of angry Afghans pelted police with stones 
after a U.S. military vehicle struck a van and and one civilian was 
killed and three wounded in the Afghan capital on November 28, officials 
and witnesses said.
Seething resentment against the presence of some 65,000 foreign troops 
is growing in Afghanistan after scores of Afghan civilians have been 
killed in a series of mistaken air strikes this year.
The incident began when a U.S.-led coalition struck the minivan and it 
skidded off a main road in eastern Kabul and hit a shop, the U.S. 
military said.
A security contractor's vehicle also travelling along the road was then 
surrounded by an angry crowd and the driver called for assistance, but 
managed to leave before troops from a nearby British base arrived at the 
scene, a NATO spokesman said.
It was not clear if the civilian died in the traffic incident or was 
shot afterwards, but the NATO-led force said none of its troops had 
fired any shots.
But the quickness with which ordinary Afghans turned to violence 
illustrates the depth of resentment against the presence of foreigners 
in their country, many of whom drive aggressively at great speed to 
avoid the threat of suicide bombers.
Ambush
The killing of an Afghan civilian in a Taliban suicide bomb targeting 
foreign troops on November 27, close to the scene of the incident, 
provoked no such protest. Afghans often blame the presence of foreign 
troops for attracting suicide bombs.
Crowds chanted "death to Bush, death to America" as the body of the 
victim of the November 28 incident was put into the back of a taxi and 
driven away from the scene.
"They killed my son, my son is dead," said a weeping old man.
The rioters pelted Afghan police with stones and were chased down 
side-streets before dispersing.
Violence in Afghanistan has reached its highest level since U.S.-led and 
Afghan forces toppled the Taliban for sheltering Al-Qaeda leaders behind 
the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Taliban insurgents killed 13 Afghan soldiers and police and wounded 23 
more in an ambush in the northwest of the country, an Afghan army 
general said onNovember 28.
General Fazel Ahmad Sayaar said the insurgents also captured 19 more 
troops and police, as well as 26 military vehicles in the attack in the 
Bala Murghab district of Badghis province on November 27.





http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=143797

Rawa protests against Afghan representatives Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Obaid Abrar Khan

Rawalpindi

Members of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan 
(Rawa) here on Tuesday staged a peaceful protest against representatives 
of Afghanistan in ‘Peace Jirga’ held in Islamabad.

Rawa, a democratic and anti-fundamentalist organisation, condemned the 
assembly, “which is not at all related to our people and their immediate 
demands for peace and stability.”

According to Rawa, this assembly would not lead to the establishment of 
peace and security in the two countries.

Sohaila, a member of Rawa, said that the composition of the Afghan 
delegation, under the leadership of Dr. Abdullah, is enough to expose 
the real nature of the assembly. The assembly is being held to deceive 
the world, especially people in Afghanistan and Pakistan, she said.

She said that if the government of Pakistan feels bound to democratic 
values, it shouldn’t allow such people to enter Pakistan, let alone sit 
together with the “brethren-in-creed of Taliban” to discuss war on 
terrorism with a hope of finding a solution to this problem.

She said that the establishment of peace in Afghanistan and Pakistan is 
only possible by rooting out the real cause of insecurity, which is 
terrorism. “Any sort of compromise with terrorists, ‘jehadis’ or Taliban 
is not only an unforgivable and unforgettable insult to our mournful 
people but will also encourage terrorists to commit crimes 
persistently,” she said.

“Practically, such steps are destined to fail despite the efforts of the 
American masters of the ‘jehadi’ criminals,” she added.





http://www.myantiwar.org/view/163814.html

Protest in Afghanistan over envoy’s kidnapping
HEART: Hundreds of people demonstrated on Wednesday in the hometown of 
Afghanistan’s kidnapped ambassador-designate to Pakistan to demand 
greater efforts for his release, a local governor said. They marched for 
Abdul Khaliq Farahi, the Afghan consul general abducted in Peshawar on 
September 22.

“Around 1,000 people, mostly influential elders, marched in a peaceful 
protest calling on both countries, the United Nations and the Taliban to 
free Mr Farahi,” Farah province Governor Rohul-Amin said. The 
demonstrators read a statement in front of the governor’s office 
accusing both countries of not doing enough for the release of the 
Afghan diplomat, who had been promoted to ambassador but had yet to take 
up the job.

“In the past 17 days the Afghan and Pakistani governments have not taken 
any serious steps to free Farahi,” a protester, Haji Shah Mahmoud, told 
AFP by telephone. afp

Thursday, October 09, 2008
Daily Times, Pakistan






http://paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?207175

More than 1,000 Afghans protest Taliban killings
Saturday October 25, 2008 (1302 PST)

KABUL: More than 1,000 demonstrators shouted anti-Taliban slogans in 
eastern Afghanistan to protest the slayings this week of 26 young men 
from their community by militants in the south.
The unprecedented demonstration Friday in the eastern Laghman province 
was one of the largest anti-Taliban gatherings since the fall of the 
hard-line Islamist regime following the U.S. invasion in late 2001.
On Sunday, Taliban militants stopped a bus in southern Kandahar 
province`s Maiwand district, a militant-controlled area, and killed26 of 
the passengers beheading at least six of them. A Taliban spokesman said 
the men were targeted because they were members of Afghan security forces.
But Afghan officials disputed that any soldiers were on the bus, saying 
the Taliban insurgents had killed innocent civilians who were on their 
way to find jobs in neighboring Iran.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans cross illegally into Iran every year, 
seeking jobs and refuge.
Protesters from Laghman`s Alingar district where most of those killed 
came from shouted “Death to Taliban`` and “Death to killers`` in the 
provincial capital of Mehtar Lam. They waved black flags in a sign of 
mourning.
“They were innocent people, trying to find jobs, and they killed them,`` 
Abdul Wakil Attock, the spokesman for the provincial governor, said 
about the victims.
The protest in Laghman, a province next to Kabul, underscores the 
growing rivalry among Pashtuns, the dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan 
that also form the core of the Taliban fighters.





http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/10/26/2003427003

Anti-Taliban protesters rally after slaughter
UNPRECEDENTED: The protest rally by Pashtuns against the Taliban, also a 
majority Pashtun group, underscores growing rivalries as Afghanistan’s 
daily death toll mounts

AP, KABUL
Sunday, Oct 26, 2008, Page 5

Demonstrators hold portraits of slain men during an anti-Taliban protest 
in Laghman Province, Afghanistan, yesterday.
PHOTO: AP
More than 1,000 Pashtun demonstrators shouted anti-Taliban slogans in 
eastern Afghanistan to protest the slayings this week of 26 young men 
from their community by militants in the south.
The unprecedented demonstration Friday in Laghman Province was one of 
the largest anti-Taliban gatherings since the fall of the hardline 
Islamist regime following the US invasion after the events of Sept. 11, 
2001.

On Sunday, Taliban militants stopped a bus in southern Kandahar 
Province’s Maiwand district, a militant-controlled area, and killed 26 
of the passengers — beheading at least six of them.

A Taliban spokesman said the men were targeted because they were members 
of Afghan security forces.

But Afghan officials disputed that any soldiers were on the bus, saying 
the Taliban insurgents had killed innocent civilians who were on their 
way to find jobs in neighboring Iran.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans cross illegally into Iran every year, 
seeking jobs and refuge.

Protesters from Laghman’s Alingar district — where most of those killed 
came from — shouted “Death to Taliban” and “Death to killers” in the 
provincial capital of Mehtar Lam.

They waved black flags in a sign of mourning.

“They were innocent people, trying to find jobs, and they killed them,” 
Abdul Wakil Attock, the spokesman for the provincial governor, said 
about the victims.

The protest in Laghman, a province next to Kabul, underscores the 
growing rivalry among Pashtuns, the dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan 
that also form the core of the Taliban fighters.

An anti-Taliban protest by Pashtuns, like Friday’s, will likely provide 
the US and other international forces with an opportunity to exploit the 
rift to drive a wedge between the insurgent group and the civilian 
population.

Separately, a US coalition raid in Paktika killed three insurgents on 
Thursday; four others were detained, the coalition said in a statement.

The troops were targeting an insurgent leader accused of facilitating 
the movement of foreign fighters and weapons throughout eastern Afghanistan.

The region borders Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt, which the US says 
militants use as a sanctuary from which to launch attacks in both 
countries.







http://www.breitbart.com/image.php?id=iafp081123060102.vrlkaawlp2&show_article=1

Jamiet Ithad-i-Ulama activists protest against a US missile strike

Jamiet Ithad-i-Ulama activists take part of a protest in Peshawar 
against a US missile strike in a Pakistani tribal region. The alleged 
Al-Qaeda mastermind of a 2006 transatlantic airplane bombing plot was 
killed in a US missile attack in northwest Pakistan.






http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Protests-after-UK--militant.4722992.jp

Protests after UK militant killed in US missile strike

Published Date: 24 November 2008
By Angus Howarth
PAKISTANIS yesterday protested over an American missile strike that 
intelligence officials believe killed a British citizen linked to a plot 
to blow up airliners.
The Foreign Office said it was still investigating the reports and could 
not confirm whether Rashid Rauf, who is originally from Birmingham, had 
been killed.

But Pakistani intelligence officials said he died in Saturday's raid.His 
death would be a major blow to al-Qaeda and Taleban extremists believed 
to be sheltering in the lawless region. It would also bolster US claims 
that missile strikes on extremist strongholds in north-western Pakistan 
are protecting the West against another 9/11-style terror attack.

About 100 people in the eastern city of Multan demonstrated against the 
strike, chanting "Down with America" and burning an effigy of US 
President George Bush.

"The government should take concrete measures to protect the country's 
sovereignty instead of just paying lip service," said one demonstrator, 
Arif Fasihullah.

Meanwhile, two senior MPs called for the UK government to reveal if it 
knew in advance about the US missile strike.

Andrew Dismore, the Labour chairman of the Parliamentary committee on 
human rights, said that he would ask the committee to investigate 
whether British intelligence services had been consulted about the attack. "

If there is any suggestion of complicity of the UK security services in 
this particular incident, then that is certainly something we would want 
to take into account in our work on this subject."

Patrick Mercer, the Tory MP for Newark and former shadow security 
minister, said: "This raises the question of how much co-operation the 
British intelligence agencies provided in what is ultimately the 
execution of a British subject."

Three Pakistani intelligence officials and a senior government official 
said Rauf and a Saudi militant named Abu Zubair al-Masri were among five 
killed in Saturday's raid in North Waziristan.

Pakistan's information minister, Sherry Rehman, confirmed that the two 
men were targeted in the raid.

Rauf was suspected of having links to an alleged plot in 2006 to bring 
down up to ten transatlantic passenger jets.

He was arrested in Pakistan in 2006 following an apparent tip-off from 
British anti-terrorism officers, days before a series of raids in the UK 
which were followed by the tightening of hand baggage restrictions on 
flights.

But Rauf later escaped from police custody.

Eight men went on trial at Woolwich Crown Court in April accused of 
conspiring to smuggle home-made liquid bombs on board a series of 
Atlantic passenger flights.

Three men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder, but they will face 
a retrial next year on a more serious charge alongside four other 
defendants on whom the jury did not return verdicts.




http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7767040.stm

Friday, 5 December 2008

Inmates die in Afghan jail clash

Prisoners say there was a hunger strike over conditions
Afghan authorities say eight inmates have been killed in clashes with 
prison guards at the Pul-e-Charkhi jail in the capital, Kabul.
Justice Minister Sarwar Danesh said the violence started after some 
prisoners resisted attempts by officers to search their cells.
Officials said they had information that a prison escape was being planned.
In June some 900 prisoners escaped from jail in the southern city of 
Kandahar after Taleban fighters blew up a gate.
'Under control'
The Afghan authorities said the officers were searching for weapons and 
mobile phones in Pul-e-Charkhi.

About 900 inmates escaped in the Kandahar incident
Mr Danesh said some of the prisoners had contacts with insurgents on the 
outside and that an explosion was going to be set off to help the escape.
He said 12 prisoners and three officers were injured in the clashes and 
the situation was now under control.
Some prisoners who contacted the BBC put the casualty figures higher.
They confirmed the clashes started after a refusal to allow cells to be 
searched. This followed an earlier hunger strike over conditions in the 
jail.
The BBC's Pam O'Toole says the authorities have accused Taleban 
prisoners of stirring up unrest over poor conditions but there are also 
accusations of poor security and rampant corruption in Afghan jails.
Pul-e-Charkhi houses several thousand prisoners, including members of 
the Taleban.
In the incident in Kandahar in June, 15 guards died in the truck bombing 
and rocket attack that began the outbreak.
The Nato forces admitted it was a success for the Taleban but insisted 
it was an isolated incident.





http://www.voanews.com/bangla/archive/2008-11/2008-11-20-voa3.cfm?CFID=156475059&CFTOKEN=80104830&jsessionid=6630198d9638c5d681ba5322672b20202217

Pakistani Government, Militants Protest Alleged US Missile Strikes
By VOA News
20-November-2008
Taliban militants in Pakistan's northwest have threatened to launch 
suicide attacks on foreigners and government targets if the United 
States does not stop alleged missile strikes from neighboring Afghanistan.
The warning, issued by militants in the North Waziristan tribal region, 
came as Pakistan's government summoned the U.S. ambassador, Anne 
Patterson Thursday to protest the alleged U.S. attacks.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called the missile strikes 
"intolerable," and said they undermine Pakistan's counter-terrorism 
efforts.A missile attack by a suspected U.S. drone hit Bannu district in 
the North West Frontier Province Wednesday, killing several 
al-Qaida-linked militants. It was the first such attack to hit deep 
inside Pakistan.Meanwhile, Pakistani warplanes and artillery pounded 
suspected al-Qaida and Taliban strongholds in the Bajaur tribal region 
and the northwestern Swat valley Wednesday and Thursday, killing about 
40 militants.







http://allafrica.com/stories/200811241234.html

Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
Somalia: Protestors March in Capital Back New Regional Administration
24 November 2008

Mogadishu — Hundreds of demonstrators have staged demonstration in the 
Somali capital Mogadishu showing support of the new Mogadishu 
administration led by Mohamed Osman Dhagahtur who has been appointed on 
Sunday night as the mayor of Mogadishu on Monday
The protestors including women and children have marched in Yaqshid and 
Karan neighborhoods north of the capital chanting recommendation words 
in show of support to the new administration.
Dhagahtur should think about the internally displaced persons at outside 
of Mogadishu one slogan one slogan read.
Waving the portraits of Dhagahtur the demonstrators have peacefully 
ended their demonstration hoping a new change of Mogadishus administration.






http://allafrica.com/stories/200812160889.html

Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
Somalia: Demonstration Against New Premier
Ahmednor Mohamed Farah
16 December 2008
Mogadishu — Hundreds of demonstrators protesting against the new prime 
minister Mohamed Mohamud Guled ( Ga'ma Dhere) nominated by Somali 
president marched through the long road between Mogadishu and Afgoye 
where thousands of displaced families reside, witnesses said Tuesday.
"We are protesting against the new prime minister Ga'ma Dhere who 
displaced us when he was the interior minister and we condemn his 
nomination," Halima Ismail, one of the demonstrators said.
Somali president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed nominated former interior minister 
Mohamed Mohamud Guled as new prime minister, ignoring the decision of 
the parliament which reinstated Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein after 
the president announced that he sacked him
The protestors in KM 13 outside Mogadishu were chanting slogans against 
the president and his new prime minister.
They accused the new prime minister that he had ordered them to flee 
from their houses in Mogadishu when he was the interior minister of the 
transitional federal government of Somalia.
"Mohamed Mohamud Guled ordered 10 squire km of south of Mogadishu to be 
abandoned in March 2007 and we afraid that he will displace us again," 
Omar Farah, one of the protestors said.
Millions of civilians fled from the capital Mogadishu when Ethiopian 
soldiers backing the transitional government and insurgents fought in 
the city.