Date:20/05/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/05/20/stories/2004052003361400.htm

International

Iranian marchers demand U.S. pullout from Iraq

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA, MAY 19. Alarmed by the damage to an important shrine in Najaf and the assassination of a prominent Shia leader in Baghdad, Iran has stepped up rhetoric and encouraged street protests that began today to seek the pull-out of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Thousands of Iranians marched on the streets of Teheran to protest against the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq.

The demonstrators gathered outside the British embassy in the Iranian capital.

As the ranks of the protestors swelled, some of them delinked from the crowd and threw petrol bombs and bricks at the embassy building.

No serious damage to the embassy was, however, reported.

Iran's Shia clergy had called for the protest, following the damage to the revered Imam Ali shrine in Najaf — a holy city that U.S. troops had invaded last week.

Wednesday's march ended in Teheran's enormous Revolution Square, where protesters burned American, British and Israeli flags.

Iran's leaders have been calling for demonstrations in three cities — Teheran, Mashhad and the holy city of Qom.

The damage to the shrine and the assassination of the Shia leader, Ezzedine Salim, have incensed the Iranian religious establishment.

Iranian newspapers this week published front-page articles citing these incidents as an illustration of a concerted U.S. attempt to persecute and sideline the majority Shia community in Iraq.

A spokesman for the radical group, Ansar Hizbollah, was quoted as saying that its members were "ready to sacrifice" their lives in case Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a decree.

The street protests today follow the sternly-worded address by Mr. Khamenei on Sunday, when he warned the Anglo-American troops to withdraw from Iraq at the earliest.