IRAQ: Demonstrators waving rifles and pictures of President Saddam Hussein marched by the tens of thousands through Baghdad on Saturday, protesting against the United States and a possible attack even as many expressed hope that chances of a conflict have receded.
The marches were large but somewhat subdued. As phalanxes of ruling Ba'ath Party members, students, housewives and volunteer militia members streamed by a reviewing stand on Palestine Street, a working-class area, an announcer cried with confidence: "We fear no aggression, and we have defeated America!"
Some protesters burned a US and an Israeli flag in front of the reviewing stand, where a senior Ba'ath Party official presided.
As the march proceeded, heavily armed police watched from the rooftops of nearby buildings.
The marchers, many in plain olive green uniforms favoured by army reservists and Ba'ath Party members, carried banners and chanted: "Bush, Bush, listen well, we love Saddam Hussein!" and "With our spirit and with our blood, we sacrifice for Saddam!"
Neighbourhood organisations had their own slogans.
The Khadamiya district, for example, proclaimed in a banner: "We are swords in the right hand of the leader to defeat the enemy."
- (Los Angeles Times)