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BAGHDAD, Iraq - People in Baghdad took to the streets early on Friday to protest the presence of US troops in Iraq.
The demonstrations, launched at the call of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr were short-lived but drew sizable crowds slamming the US, which has several thousand troops stationed across the country.
Anti-US sentiment has grown following heightened US-Iran tensions at the beginning of this month, which led to a series of Iraqi military bases being attacked.
The US assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghadad at the end of December has been seen as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.
“If they had dignity and the power they could have hit Soleimani in Tehran rather than showing us their muscles here in Iraq. Do not think that we will shut up someday. Neither today nor tomorrow nor the next century, we will continue and give it to the next generation until we die,” one demonstrator told Rudaw.
An 80-year old woman present at the march spoke of her sons who were imprisoned by US forces.
“America took three of my sons. I was mentally wounded. One of them was in prison for four years… I hate them, and I die with their presence. Let’s kick them out, my sons.”
Reporting by Hunar Ahmed
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