BAGHDAD, April 16 (UPI) -- Fardous Square in central Baghdad, where a giant statue of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein stood only last week, was transformed into an Iraqi version of London's Hyde Park where angry protesters shouted at U.S. troops to "go home."
The square, facing the Palestine Hotel, seat of the U.S. military command, has also become the speaking corner of Iraqi youth calling for democratic rule in Iraq, free of foreign occupation and interference.
"Death to America!" "Down with Bush!" shouted the crowd, which also openly criticized the "crimes of the Baathist dictatorship" that ruled the country with an iron fist for more than three decades.
Heavily armed U.S. troops stood idle and indifferent as the protesters shouted, "Go to your home... this is my home."
Anti-U.S. protesters have been here for several days. They are members of various political factions and movements, which began to surface after Saddam's ouster. Various groups distributed leaflets calling for unity and democratic rule.
Islamic chants such as "God is Great" were interspersed with praise of Kurdish leader Masud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and English chants denouncing the U.S. presence in Iraq. Pictures of Iraqi opposition leaders, including Barzani and his late father, Mullah Mustapha Barzani, were plastered around the square.
The KDP also distributed leaflets signed by Barzani in which the Kurdish leader described post-Saddam Iraq as "the beginning of change toward a democratic, federal and free Iraq under which the Kurdish cause would be settled justly."
