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Anti-US Protest Marks Start of U.S. Vice-President’s Trip to Iraq

Syndicated from Common Dreams

Promoted by blackandred on Fri, 2009-07-03 18:40.

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Anti-US Protest Marks Start of Biden’s Iraq Trip

By Agence France Presse – Friday, July 3, 2009

BAGHDAD – A fiery protest marked the start on Friday of US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Iraq, with supporters of the Shiite anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr burning the Stars and Stripes.

Biden met General Ray Odierno, the top US officer in Iraq, and Christopher Hill, Washington’s ambassador in Baghdad, who briefed him on the military and political situation, three days after a major US troop pullback.

The vice president’s trip, aimed at bridging Iraq’s sectarian divide ahead of a complete American military pullout in 2011, comes just after President Barack Obama tasked Biden with overseeing the US departure.

A stark reminder of the legacy inherited by Obama’s administration, however, came in Sadr City, where hundreds of supporters of Sadr, who is in self-imposed exile, chanted anti-US slogans.

“No, no America, no, no occupation. Yes, yes Iraq,” they shouted as an American flag was reduced to ashes in the sprawling Baghdad Shiite district.

http://mostlywater.org/antius_protest_marks_start_bidens_iraq_trip