Tens of thousands of Iraqis demonstrated on Saturday against a proposed pact that that would allow US forces to stay in Iraq for three more years. Marchers waved Iraqi flags and chanted, “Yes, yes Iraq! No, no to the occupation!” Demonstrators set fire to effigies of President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said the protest showed many Iraqis oppose any plan that would keep US forces in Iraq.

Hazim al-Araji, aide to Muqtada al-Sadr: “All the Iraqis, including Sunnis and Shiites, Arabs and Kurds, have taken to the streets today to express their rejection of the occupation and the security pact, and we demand from all those who also denounce the pact to organize a similar demonstration.”

The New York Times reports opposition to the pact is growing inside Iraq even by some of the parties that negotiated the agreement. On Sunday, the pro-government United Iraqi Alliance said it could not endorse the agreement unless it requires US troops to leave Iraq by 2011.