Baghdad, Jan 24 (AFP/APP): Supporters of volatile Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr prepared on Friday for a “million-strong” march in Baghdad to demand the ouster of US troops, putting the protest-hit capital on edge. The march has rattled the separate, months-old protest movement that has rocked the capital and Shiite-majority south, where young Iraqis have demanded a government overhaul, early parliamentary elections and more accountability. After defying violence that has left 470 people dead as well as a spree of kidnappings and intimidations, those protesters fear their cause could be eclipsed by Sadr’s powerplay. “Sadr doesn’t represent us,” one teenager said defiantly late Thursday on a blocked-off thoroughfare in Baghdad. America’s military presence in Iraq has become a hot-button issue in the country since a US drone strike killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis on January 3 outside Baghdad’s international airport. Two days later, parliament voted for all foreign troops — including some 5,200 US forces — to leave their country. Sadr, long opposed to US troops being in Iraq, decided to take that momentum to the street and called for “a million-strong, peaceful, unified demonstration to condemn the American presence and its violations”. Several pro-Iran … Continue reading Iraqis apprehensive ahead of cleric’s anti-US rally