Protesters denounce US interference in Iraq's domestic affairs

Hundreds of Iraqis have taken to the streets of the capital, Baghdad, to vent their anger at the US meddling in the Arab country's domestic affairs.

According to Press TV, demonstrators gathered in central Baghdad on Friday carrying banners and chanting slogans in condemnation of Washington's interference in Iraq's internal issues.

Protester Sheikh Kazem Faihan called on the Iraqi nation to be united against "the enemy and its stark intervention in our matter. It’s the Zionist-US enemy trying to intervene in our local matter so, oh, Iraqi people how can you be silent about this criminal act?"

Sadek Mahdawi, another participant in Friday's rally, stressed that the Iraqi people have to choose their own government.

"Our demand is [for them] not to interfere in Iraqi matters, this is first. Second, we are electing a counsel to be in charge of forming a new council with no foreign intervention from the US or anyone else," he said.

"They (the Americans) are not the world’s only power. We are people with a deep rooted civilization and our history was formed before US history even started. We invented the real civilization and the first handwriting and we're supposed to be able to elect our own government."

The US, backed by the UK, invaded Iraq in 2003 under the pretext that the then regime possessed weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons, however, were ever found in the country.

More than one million Iraqis were killed as a result of the US-led invasion and the subsequent occupation of the country, according to the California-based investigative organization Project Censored.

The invasion plunged Iraq into chaos and led to the rise of terrorist groups.

The US and a coalition of its allies further launched a military campaign against purported Daesh targets in Iraq in 2014, but their operations in many instances have led to civilian deaths.  

ME