A giant banner of a hooded and abused Iraqi prisoner is displayed during a rally in Beirut, May 21, 2004. Tens of thousands of Lebanese Shi'ites in white shrouds marched in Beirut Friday in a collective show of their willingness to die in defense of holy shrines in U.S.-occupied Iraq. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Lebanese Shiites in mass rally vow to defend Iraqi holy sites
BEIRUT (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese Shiite Muslims vowed in a street demonstration to help protect holy sites in Iraq (news - web sites), where a radical young cleric is engaged in a bloody insurgency against US-led forces.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called for the march in the latest sign of the close ties developing between Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr, who is in control of the holy Iraqi city of Najaf, and the Lebanese Shiite fundamentalist group.
Organizers said 500,000 people took to the streets of southern Beirut but the size of the crowd, including men and women from all over the country, was not confirmed by independent witnesses.
Protesters, some wearing shrouds symbolising their willingness to die for Islam, shouted "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!" during the march, which Nasrallah called as a "symbolic message to the Americans".
"The Americans must understand that your presence in shrouds is not about spectacle, but means the renewal of your engagement in the struggle for the just cause until victory," Nasrallah told the crowd.
He said the protesters "displayed our determination to defend our holy places, which no one will dare to touch".
The Hezbollah chief also linked the fighting between Sadr's militia and US-led forces in Iraq to the Palestinians' struggle against the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip.
More than 40 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza town of Rafah this week during a major Israeli military incursion.
Hezbollah guerrillas were instrumental in driving Israel out of southern Lebanon in 2000, ending a 22-year occupation. They continue to harass Israeli troops occupying a bit of land claimed by Lebanon and occasionally fire on northern Israel.
Nasrallah said there was a "sole enemy: the American-Israeli camp, linked by Zionism".
During his Friday sermon near Najaf, south of Baghdad, Sadr personally thanked Nasrallah for his help and called on "other Arabs" to back his cause.
But the young cleric has not won the backing of Iraqi's top Shiite authority, the reclusive Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, whose supporters protested for peace Friday and demanded Sadr's forces leave the holy city of Karbala.