the deaths of the four mercenaries, and in the process we have succeeded in uniting all Iraqis against the jackboot of our occupation.
US stoking unrest before festival, say Shia
By Patrick Cockburn in Sadr City, Baghdad
08 April 2004
"The Americans are just as bad as Saddam Hussein," said Hamid al-Ugily, the leader of six men from Sadr city carrying a green flag who are spending two to three days walking to Kerbala. "We think they will attack Muqtada in Najaf. We will defend our religious leaders."
What is menacing for the US is that all of the men marching to Kerbala, something they once did secretly under Saddam Hussein, are soldiers in the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps (ICDC). This paramilitary body, created by the Coalition Provisional Authority, is set to take over duties currently undertaken by the American soldiers.
Abbas, one of the marchers, said: "I have been in the ICDC one year and the Americans didn't do anything for Iraq." The friction between US soldiers and Iraqi Shias, some 15-16 million of the 25 million population, is becoming more intense by the day.
On another road into Baghdad another group of Shia pilgrims about a hundred strong from the town of Dejali were being detained and forced to sit on the ground by heavily armed US soldiers who were eyeing their green flags with suspicion.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=509579