Anti-American Protests Mark Iraqi Anniversary

Tens of thousands of Iraqis converged today on the southern city of Najaf, a Shia shrine, to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.  Waving Iraqi flags and chanting anti-U.S. slogans,  demonstators marched from Kufa to neighboring Najaf. AP reports that two cordons of Iraqi police lined the route, while others soldiers, in uniform, joined the crowd.

The demonstration, called by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was peaceful. On Sunday al-Sadr called for Iraqis to stop killing each other. "You, the Iraqi army and police forces," he said in a statement released by followers, "don't walk alongside the occupiers, because they are your archenemy."     (More Iraq stories.)