Hizballah Supporters in Baghdad
Charles Johnson
Fri Aug 4, 2006 at 1:24 pm PDT • Views: 276
I’ll never understand why we didn’t wipe out Muqtada al-Sadr and his “Mahdi Army” when we had the chance: Shiites rally for Hezbollah in Baghdad.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Tens of thousands of Shiites thronged a Baghdad slum Friday to show support for Hezbollah as Arab anger toward Israel mounted on the Muslim holy day. Such protests have even reached Saudi Arabia, where public discontent is rare.
In the most violent demonstration, about 100 people threw stones and a firebomb at the British Embassy in Tehran, damaging the building but harming nobody as they accused Britain and the United States of being accomplices in Israel’s fight against Hezbollah, a Shiite group in Lebanon that is backed by Persian Iran.
Even Sunni Muslim demonstrators took to the streets of Damascus, Cairo and Amman. But their numbers were dwarfed by the huge Shiite turnout in Baghdad, organized by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Crowds of al-Sadr supporters from across Iraq’s Shiite heartland converged on the capital’s Sadr City district, chanting “Death to Israel, Death to America” in the biggest pro-Hezbollah rally since the conflict began July 12.
Demonstrators, wearing white shrouds symbolizing willingness to die for Hezbollah, waved the guerrillas’ banner and chanted slogans in support of their leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.
“Allah, Allah, give victory to Hassan Nasrallah,” the crowd chanted before burning Israeli and American flags.
Frank says: