May 31, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 28, 1424

BAGHDAD, May 30: A Shia imam has called for the “immediate” withdrawal of US and British forces from Iraq, saying the Iraqis should be allowed to determine their own future.

“We ask US forces in particular, and coalition forces in general, to leave Iraq immediately, because it is for the Iraqi people to determine their future,” Sheikh Kazem al-Abadi said in a sermon during Friday prayers in Baghdad’s suburb of Sadr City.

“Occupation cannot be accepted in exchange for the (US-engineered) lifting of (UN) sanctions on Iraq,” Abadi said.

“Freedom cannot be bought with gold. It is priceless,” he said.

Sheikh Abadi urged Arabs and other Muslims to “cooperate to get the occupiers out” of Iraq.

Hundreds of Shias, many from the influential Hawza seminary, protested in Baghdad on Thursday against the US occupation and a US-led crackdown on their school in Najaf. —AFP