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Iraqi Shi'ites protest Iran's growing influence
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SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, June 30, 2006
BAGHDAD — In the first such demonstration, thousands of Shi'ites
have protested the increasing Iranian stranglehold over central and southern
Iraq.
On June 23, more than 20,000 Shi'ites protested Iran's growing
intervention in Iraq. The Shi'ites demonstrated in Karbala, the annual
destination of millions of Iranian pilgrims and which contains an Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps presence.
Iraqi sources said the demonstration was held after Friday mosque
prayers in Karbala. They said the protesters assailed Teheran for its
support to anti-government insurgents in Iraq.
"This expressed the views of a large sector of the people of Iraq
against the Iranian regime's role in Iraq," Dhia Al Moussawi, director of
the office of Ayatollah Mahmoud Al Hassani in Karbala, told the Iraqi daily
Assabah.
The demonstration took place as the United States deemed Iran a leading
source of instability in Iraq. U.S. officials said that over the last year
Teheran has significantly increased assistance to and training of Shi'ite
insurgents from such groups as the Badr Brigade and the Mahdi Army.
Copyright © 2006 East West
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