BAGHDAD - Followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr
marched on Friday against a pact letting U.S. forces stay in Iraq until
2011, toppling an effigy of President George W. Bush where U.S. troops
once tore down a statue of Saddam Hussein.
Thousands of demonstrators chanted and waved Iraqi flags in
Baghdad's Firdos square, where U.S. forces pulled down a statue of the
ousted Iraqi dictator when they took the city in 2003.
BAGHDAD - The status of forces of agreement between the United
States and Iraq is now called the withdrawal agreement, and that's
exactly what it is: an ultimate end to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
BAGHDAD - Two days after the election of Barack Obama, Iraq's chief spokesman said with unusual forcefulness Thursday that his government will continue to insist on a firm withdrawal date for U.S. troops, despite American demands that any pullout be subject to prevailing security conditions.
"Iraqis would like to know and see a fixed date," spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in an interview in which he also reiterated Iraq's position that American forces be subject to Iraqi legal jurisdiction in some instances.
