Tens of thousands of loyalists of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr rallied in south Iraq Monday decrying poor services and rampant graft on the ninth anniversary of the US-led invasion against Saddam Hussein.
Protesters flooded the centre of the southern port city of Basra for the rally, with demonstrators waving Iraqi flags and portraits of the anti-US Shiite cleric and his father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, killed in 1999 by assailants thought to have been sent by Saddam. Reading remarks composed by Sadr, currently in Iran, Sheikh Assad al-Nassari told the crowd: “We cannot rest when there is injustice against us.”
“Demand your rights, I will support you, and with our unity we will be strong. You must fight for a stable nation.”
