BAGHDAD, 21 August 2004 — Hundreds of Iraqis, mostly football fans lured by the promise of free shirts, walked and danced through central Baghdad yesterday carrying posters of disgraced Pentagon favorite Ahmed Chalabi, but chanting their support for Shiite radical leader Moqtada Sadr.
The youngsters gathered in Al-Tahrir Square and marched toward the capital’s heavily fortified administrative compound to protest against the government’s threat to launch a decisive assault against Sadr’s militiamen in their stronghold in the central holy city of Najaf. Although they held in their hands banners supporting the secular Chalabi, on their lips was praise for Sadr.
“Welcome to the symbol of free Iraq — Chalabi,” read a placard brandished by one demonstrator, even as he chanted: “Stop killing people in Najaf.”
“Long live Moqtada,” shouted Maher Masan, a 19-year-old football fan from the Al-Jihad neighborhood of west Baghdad. In his hand was a placard with Chalabi’s photograph on it. Masan said he had joined the march at the request of senior members of his local football club, who had been asked to provide support for a rally by Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress. “We were told we would be given sports items such as T-shirts and football equipment if we participated in the march,” said Masan, showing off a green T-shirt bearing the name of Spanish footballing ace Raul Gonzalez Blanco. “So we came, but we are supporting Sadr,” he told AFP.
