Iraqi Shiites remember the 'fall of the tyrant'

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2006

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq has marked the third anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, with hundreds of Shiites expressing joy at the ouster of the former dictator while the former Sunni elite denounced the presence of US-led foreign troops in the country.

Shiites rallying in the capital took a huge poster of Saddam emblazoned with the words "fall of the tyrant" and trampled on it repeatedly, in memory of the toppling of the former ruler's statue in a Baghdad square on April 9, 2003.

Chanting slogans Sunday in favour of embattled Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, the demonstrators also marked the anniversary of the assassination of Shiite cleric Mohammed Baqr Sadr, slain under Saddam's old regime.

But Sunni Arabs, the once powerful elite under Saddam,...