Thursday, 10 April 2008
Al-Sadr called off a mass anti-U.S. demonstration he had planned for Wednesday after his followers in the south complained that Iraqi security forces were preventing them from traveling to Baghdad."On this day five years ago we were dreaming of a bright future, but now we know that our dream has turned into a long nightmare," said Khalid Ibrahim, a 45-year-old teacher from the mainly Sunni area of Azamiyah.
In many ways, Baghdad resembles more of a war zone than it did on April 9, 2003, when American Marines stormed into the capital and pulled down a bronze statue of Saddam with the help of dozens of Iraqis.
Violence declined last year and early this year following a cease-fire by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, an influx of some 30,000 additional American troops and a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq.
But a recent government crackdown on al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia has provoked fierce retaliation, underscoring the fragility of the security gains.
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