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Summary Anti-American cleric demanded that the US withdraw its troops immediately.
Tens of thousands of supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric, demanded that the United States withdraw its troops immediately at a rally in Baghdad.The rally comes at a time when Washington is stepping up pressure on Iraqi leaders to decide whether US troops should stay to help fend off a still-potent insurgency. A bilateral security pact requires Washington to withdraw its remaining force of around 47,000 troops by years end.Al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric who opposes the presence of U.S. troops on Iraqi soil, issued a statement via his spokesman Salah al-Ubaidi, calling for the end of the US presence in Iraq. They, the Iraqi government agreed with the occupiers that they would leave within months from this homeland”, said al-Ubaidi. We wait for one item, their full withdrawal from Iraq, and their last soldier and base (to leave) from these holy and great lands, al-Ubaidi added.More than eight years after the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, Iraq is struggling to halt violence from a weakened but still lethal Islamist insurgency and to put an end to a long period of political instability following general elections more than a year ago.
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