US-Iraq security proposal meets mounting opposition

Americans insist they're not seeking permanent bases

Demonstrators shouted slogans in Baghdad's Sadr City district as they held placards of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Baghdad and other cities. (Karim Kadim/Associated Press)

BAGHDAD - Tens of thousands rallied in several cities yesterday against a proposed US-Iraqi security agreement, raising doubts that negotiators can meet a July target to complete a pact to keep US troops in Iraq after the current UN mandate expires.

Although US officials insist they are not seeking permanent bases, suspicion runs deep among many Iraqis that the Americans want to keep at least some troops in the country for many years.

"We denounce the government's intentions to sign a long-term agreement with the occupying forces," Asaad al-Nassiri, a sheik loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, said during a sermon in Kufa. "Our army will be under their control in this agreement, and this will lead to them having permanent bases in Iraq."

President Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed a statement in December on the future of US-Iraqi relations, saying they planned to finalize a new security agreement by July 31 - in time for Iraq's Parliament to approve the deal before a UN mandate expires at the end of the year.

US and Iraqi officials began negotiations in March on a blueprint for the long-term security agreement and a second deal to establish the legal basis for US troops to remain in the country after the UN mandate runs out.

Rallies in Baghdad and several other Iraqi cities followed prayer services yesterday and were the first following a call by Sadr for weekly protests against the agreement, even though few details of the talks have been released.

Most of the protesters appeared to be followers of Sadr, the hard-line Shi'ite cleric and militia leader whose Mahdi Army battled American and Iraqi troops in Baghdad's Sadr City district until a truce this month ended nearly seven weeks of fighting.

But opposition to the agreement appears to be growing beyond the Sadrist movement.

A militant Sunni clerical group, the Association of Muslim Scholars, denounced the "ring of secrecy" surrounding the talks and said the proposed deal would pave the way for "military, economic, and cultural domination" by the Americans.

On Thursday, the head of the country's biggest mainstream Shi'ite party, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, said some unspecified points under negotiation "violate Iraq's national sovereignty," adding that a "national consensus" was emerging against the proposed agreement.

Hakim is Sadr's main rival in the majority Shi'ite community, and he maintains close ties to the country's main Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Aides to the powerful ayatollah say he also has reservations about the deal.

Before the protests yesterday, Sadr's office in Baghdad issued a statement branding the negotiations "a project of humiliation" aimed at turning Iraq "into a small stooge of the United States."

US officials have declined to comment on the talks until the draft is completed.

Some congressional Democrats are insisting that Congress should authorize any agreement that would obligate the United States to defend Iraq.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari of Iraq said two weeks ago that "we are making progress," although other Iraqi officials acknowledged there were many unresolved issues, including how many Americans would remain and what they would do. American soldiers now have full immunity from the Iraqi legal system.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to talk about the negotiations.

Rallies against the security deal occurred as the US military was seeking to contain the public relations damage caused by reports that an American Marine handed out coins promoting Christianity to Sunni Muslims in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

Sunni officials and residents said a Marine distributed about 10 coins at a checkpoint controlling access to the city, the scene of one of the fiercest battles of the war.

One side asked: "Where will you spend eternity?" The other contained a verse from the New Testament: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16."

The US military responded quickly to the incident, first reported by McClatchy Newspapers, removing a Marine from duty pending an investigation. Military regulations forbid proselytizing any religion.

"Indications are this was an isolated incident, an individual Marine acting on his own accord passing out coins," Lieutenant Colonel Chris Hughes, a spokesman for US forces in western Iraq, said in an e-mailed statement.

Distribution of the coins was the second perceived insult to Islam by American service members this month. A US Army sniper was sent out of the country after using a Koran, Islam's holy book, for target practice in a predominantly Sunni area west of Baghdad.