'Fall of the tyrant' remembered
2006-04-09 21:48
Baghdad - Iraq on Sunday marked the third anniversary of the fall of
Saddam Hussein's regime, with hundreds of Shi'ites expressing joy at
the ouster of the former dictator while the former Sunni elite
denounced the presence of US-led foreign troops in the country.
Shi'ites rallying in the capital took a huge poster of Saddam
emblazoned with the words "fall of the tyrant" and trampled on it
repeatedly, in memory of the toppling of the former ruler's statue
in a Baghdad square on April 9 2003.
Chanting slogans in favour of embattled Prime Minister Ibrahim
Jaafari, the demonstrators also marked the anniversary of the
assassination of Shi'ite cleric Mohammed Baqr Sadr, slain under
Saddam's old regime.
But Sunni Arabs, the once powerful elite under Saddam, denounced
the presence of foreign troops in Iraq, which is mired in sectarian
violence, anti-US attacks and hostage-takings.
The Iraqi Islamic Party, the principal Sunni faction, said the
US-led invasion of Iraq had made the country a "victim of
disaster".
The leading Sunni religious body, the Muslim Scholars
Association, also said "the occupation has brought destruction" to
Iraq.
- AFP