Iraqi Protesters Demand Scrapping Security Deal

November 21, 2008 8:03 p.m. EST

Baghdad, Iraq (AHN) - Iraqis opposed to U.S. occupation held a protest rally against a new security agreement between Iraq and the U.S. in a Baghdad square on Friday.

The protest, joined by Shiite followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was staged at the Firdoos Square ahead of the parliamentary vote on the controversial deal next week.

Iraq's cabinet has approved the deal that sets the end of U.S. troops' stay in Iraq to December 2011. But Sadr and his allies in parliament have expressed opposition to the agreement.

Sadr called for the rally and protesters carried banners saying "no to the agreement" and urging American soldiers to leave the country. Sheikh Talal al-Saadi, the imam of Baghdad's revered Kadhimiyah shrine and one of several clerics in the crowd, said the Iraqi government must wait for the order of U.S. president-elect Barack Obama to assume office.

Obama wants U.S. troops out of Iraq in 16 months.