First anti-US slogans raised in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (AFP) Apr 13, 2003
Several dozen Iraqis gathered in front of US forces in the centre of the Iraqi capital on Sunday and for the first time since the regime collapsed chanted anti-American slogans, an AFP reporter said.

Angered by the widespread looting and precarious security situation in the capital, the protesters rallied near the Palestine Hotel that lodges US officers and most of the foreign media.

They chanted: "There is only one God and America is the enemy of God!" and "We will sacrifice our souls and our blood for Iraq!"

"Bush = Saddam," read a banner held up by the demomonstrators.

One demonstrator told AFP the protesters had come from "all regions of Iraq to tell the Americans that they're the ones who put Saddam in power and now they're going to try to force on us other rulers we don't want."

SPACE.WIRE