By Andy Mosher
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, August 5, 2006

BAGHDAD, Aug. 4 -- Thousands of Shiite Muslims marched though the Iraqi capital on Friday in support of Hezbollah guerrillas battling Israeli forces in Lebanon, answering a call by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to rally to the cause of their fellow Shiites.

Throngs of Shiite men, most clad in white burial shrouds that symbolized their willingness to die, gathered in the northeast Baghdad slum known as Sadr City. Then they marched toward the center of the capital, chanting: "We will step over America. We are Hezbollah" and "How can we sleep tonight? We have a quarrel with Israel."

Other demonstrators waved the yellow flag of Hezbollah, the red-and-green flag of Lebanon and numerous banners, including one that read: "Death to America and Israel, the enemies of humanity." Occasionally, knots of protesters stopped to desecrate the flag of Israel.

Friday's demonstration was the latest sign that the fighting in Lebanon is sparking outrage across the Middle East, especially among the region's Shiites. The large turnout, along with the absence of any reported violence, also suggested that Sadr's ability to rally legions of disciplined followers remains strong at a time when factional militias dominate Baghdad.

"Today, we proved that there is no violence among our ranks and the Iraqis are fully in support of the Lebanese people," said Sahib al-Amiry, who heads a branch of Sadr's organization called the God's Martyr Foundation.

Estimates of the crowd by organizers ranged from 250,000 to 1 million, which would make it the biggest protest in the Middle East in support of Hezbollah since Israel launched attacks last month after the Shiite insurgency group seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. But the U.S. military said in a news release that calculations based on pictures taken from unmanned surveillance aircraft put the crowd at 14,000.

The convergence of so many Sadr supporters, including members of the cleric's personal militia known as the Mahdi Army, had raised concern that the march would provoke bloodshed. But the Iraqi Defense Ministry allowed it to take place, and the event was overwhelmingly peaceful. Many supporters traveled up from Shiite-dominated areas in southern Iraq.

Sadr issued a call for Friday's demonstration early in the week and has repeatedly denounced Israel's military assault in Lebanon. Both Sadr and Hezbollah share ties to Iran, and Sadr is believed to be modeling his movement after Hezbollah.

Shiite leaders in Iraq's government have also expressed solidarity with Hezbollah. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose ruling coalition of Shiite parties includes several loyal to Sadr, has called for a cease-fire in Lebanon and has criticized Israel -- a stance at odds with that of the Iraqi government's backers in Washington.

Sadr's Mahdi Army staged two armed uprisings against U.S. and Iraqi forces in 2004 and has been widely accused of involvement in the sectarian killings that claim scores of lives every day in Iraq. Tensions persist between U.S. forces and Sadr's militia.

On Thursday, a van full of Sadr supporters on their way to the demonstration in Baghdad exchanged fire with U.S. and Iraqi forces at a checkpoint near Mahmudiyah, U.S. and Iraqi sources said.

A statement issued by the U.S. military in Baghdad said that occupants of the van fired on U.S. Army soldiers in a security tower and that the soldiers returned fire, killing two Iraqis. Al-Amiry, of the Sadr-allied God's Martyr Foundation, accused the Americans of firing first.

Maliki has vowed that his government will dismantle the militias, but many of the country's factional forces seem as potent as ever, including the one associated with Maliki's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

While the level of violence in Baghdad was far lower than in recent days, bombings and gunfights Friday claimed more than a dozen lives in and around the northern city of Kirkuk.

In Mosul, police battled insurgents in the streets of the city, 220 miles north of Baghdad, from early morning until afternoon, according to Wathiq al-Hamdani, the Mosul police commander. Two car bombs, he added, killed four police officers and wounded eight.

About 35 miles south of Mosul in the town of Hatra, a suicide bomber drove a car filled with explosives into a crowd of spectators during a soccer match between police and a local team, according to the Ninevah province police.

The bomb killed 10 people, including seven police officers, and wounded 12.

And in western Iraq, two American soldiers assigned to the 1st Armored Division's 1st Brigade were killed in combat Friday, according to a U.S. military statement that provided no additional details.

Special correspondents Saad Sarhan in Najaf and Dlovan Brwari in Mosul contributed to this report.