IRAQ: SHI'ITES MARCH ON U.S. HEADQUARTERS TO PROTEST AGAINST ARREST OF A SHI'ITE CLERIC

Record ID: 584733

  • Title: IRAQ: SHI'ITES MARCH ON U.S. HEADQUARTERS TO PROTEST AGAINST ARREST OF A SHI'ITE CLERIC
  • Date: 9th October 2003
  • Summary: (W5) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (OCTOBER 8, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV SHI'ITE PROTESTERS IN STREET WITH FLAGS, CHANTING, MARCHING FROM ALI AL BAYAA MOSQUE TO THE PALACE; CLERICS IN BACKGROUND OF PROTEST; CROWD CHANTING (3 SHOTS) 0.18 2. MV MAN SITTING ON GROUND, JOINS IN CHANT; MV CLERIC WALKS PAST 0.33 3. SLV BARBED WIRE BEING PUT UP BY U.S. TROOPS; SMALL CROWD BEHIND BARBED WIRE; SLV HUMVEES MOVING; SLV U.S. TROOPS PUT UP BARBED WIRE; SLV HUMVEES MOVE THROUGH, U.S. SOLDIER GUIDES THEM (4 SHOTS) 1.14 4. SLV TANK ON STREET, PROTESTERS IN FOREGROUND; LARGE CROWD WITH FLAGS; SLV AMBULANCE MOVES THROUGH CROWD (4 SHOTS) 1.47 5. SLV U.S. TROOPS WALKING OFF WITH CLERICS 1.52 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 24th October 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVAOENWSX3Q2VNCIANXM5LC1NM7
  • Story Text: Iraqi Shi'ites march on US headquarters in Baghdad
    to protest arrest of a Shi'ite cleric.

    More than 2,000 Shi'ite Muslims marched to the
    headquarters of the U.S.-led administration in Iraq on
    Wednesday (October 8) in a second day of protests demanding
    the release of a cleric arrested by American troops.

    Hundreds of protesters sat down in the road outside a
    palace complex in central Baghdad that formerly housed
    Saddam Hussein's top officials and has now been taken over
    by Iraq's occupiers. They shouted slogans and refused to
    move.

    Officials in the U.S.-led administration invited
    protest representatives inside the complex for talks on
    defusing the situation.

    The protesters had marched from a mosque in southern
    Baghdad where they massed on Tuesday following the
    detention of Sheikh Muayad Khazraji, a Shi'ite cleric.

    According to U.S. forces, Khazraji was arrested for
    "criminal and anti-coalition activities".

    But the cleric's followers say he is innocent.

    Local leaders said the U.S. military had told them the
    cleric and another man who worked at the mosque were
    accused of storing arms and calling on Iraqis to oppose the
    U.S.-led occupation. The U.S. military has not commented on
    this.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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