Anger, Tears 4 Years After Saddam's Fall
It was an unforgettable image: a lone Iraqi striking blow after blow on that towering statue of Sadaam Hussein.
"It was always my wish in life to destroy that statue," said Khadim Yabani.
Four years ago, he finally got his wish, reports CBS News' Martin Seemungal. Yabani remembers the moment as if it were yesterday.
"We were so happy," he said. "We got rid of the tyrant."
Yabani, a Shiite, became the symbol of a nation liberated.
But then a violent insurgency erupted, followed by vicious sectarian fighting between the minority Sunnis, who had ruled for so long under Saddam, and Iraq's restive Shiite majority.
Four years later, Iraq's largest ethnic group has come out in force to rally against the American forces that led the charge to topple Saddam, violence still defines the country on news broadcasts around the world, and the development of Iraq's young democracy is mired in sectarian resentment.
In the United States, popular support for the war has dwindled as the casualty reports from Baghdad mount and signs of solid progress remain elusive.
Ten U.S. soldiers died in fighting over the weekend, including six killed on Easter Sunday, according to the military.
Among the 10 deaths announced Sunday were three soldiers killed by a roadside bomb while patrolling south of Baghdad; one killed in an attack south of the capital; and two who died of combat wounds sustained north of the capital, in Diyala and Salahuddin provinces. On Saturday, the military said, four U.S. soldiers were killed in an explosion near their vehicle in Diyala.
At least 3,280 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians.
Powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his militiamen to redouble their battle to oust American forces and argued that Iraq's army and police should join him in defeating "your archenemy."
Al-Sadr commands an enormous following among Iraq's Shiites and has close allies in the Shiite-dominated government.
Tens of thousands draped themselves in Iraqi flags and marched through the streets of two Shiite holy cities Monday, with some demonstrators calling for U.S.-led forces to leave.
Leaflets fluttered through the breeze reading: "Yes, Yes to Iraq" and "Yes, Yes to Muqtada. Occupiers should leave Iraq."
One banner read: "Brothers Sunni and Shiite, this country would not be sold." Another: "Death to America."
"The enemy that is occupying our country is now targeting the dignity of the Iraqi people," said lawmaker Nassar al-Rubaie, head of Sadr's bloc in parliament, as he marched. "After four years of occupation, we have hundreds of thousands of people dead and wounded."
In other developments:
President Bush's new plan to secure Iraq is centered on a massive security push in the capital city, the success of which has been much debated.
A senior official in al-Sadr's organization in Najaf, Salah al-Obaydi, called the rally a "call for liberation."
"We're hoping that by next year's anniversary, we will be an independent and liberated Iraq with full sovereignty," he said.
Iraqi soldiers in uniform joined the crowd, which was led by at least a dozen turbaned clerics — including one Sunni. Many marchers danced as they moved through the streets.
Thirty members of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni group, traveled several hundred kilometers northward from Basra to attend the rally alongside Sadrists from their hometown.
"We came to join our brothers from al-Sadr's bloc, to reject the foreign occupation. We call on the Americans and other multinational forces to withdraw from Iraq," said Sunni sheik Alla Nasir.
In bringing together members of his own sect with Iraq's disillusioned Sunni minority, al-Sadr succeeded — briefly at least — where the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad has failed.
Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani, has recently voiced opposition to a pending piece of legislation that would bring some Sunni members of Saddam's government back into the political fold.
The legislation is seen as crucial to winning support for the central government from the Sunni bloc, many of whom fear being sidelined by the new Shiite-led authority.
Brookings Institution senior fellow Michael O'Hanlon told CBS' Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith that al-Sistani's rejection of the bill, is "the worst news in Iraq."
O'Hanlon says the cleric had been helpful to the cause of easing sectarian tension, until recently. "In the last year he's been so dis-spirited that he hasn't said much. Now he comes out and says something that works against us."
Monday's demonstration was peaceful, but two ambulances could be seen moving slowly with the marching crowd, poised to help if violence or stampedes broke out. It ended without violence after about three hours.
Col. Steven Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman and aide to the commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq, praised the peaceful nature of the demonstration, saying Iraqis "could not have done this four years ago."
"This is the right to assemble, the right to free speech – they didn't have that under the former regime," Boylan said. "This is progress, there's no two ways about it."
The capital city was also tense on the four-year anniversary, with a 24-hour vehicle ban imposed by the military to try and prevent near-daily car bomb attacks.