Syria-based Iraqis protest against Iraq-US pact

Almost 2,000 Syria-based Iraqis staged a protest on Wednesday against the Iraq-US military pact, saying that the agreement would place Iraq under US domination. Men, women and children took part in the demonstration in the Sayeda Zeinab suburb south of Damascus nearly a week after the Baghdad parliament ratified the pact. "We denounce the security agreement, a shameful and dishonourable agreement of American occupation," read one banner outside a shop in the mostly Shiite neighbourhood. "Iraqis in Syria denounce this disastrous agreement," read another. One demonstrator carried a placard reading: "This disastrous accord puts Iraq under American control." After months of wrangling, the Iraqi cabinet on November 24 ratified the agreement, which is now due to be formally endorsed by the country's presidential council. The agreement would replace a UN mandate which expires at the end of December and allow US forces to remain in Iraq until the end of 2011. Last month Syrian Information Mohsen Bilal said the pact rewards the US occupation of Iraq. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, some 4.7 million Iraqis have been uprooted since the US-led 2003 invasion. Around 1.5 million sought refuge in Syria and around half a million in Jordan. Sayeda Zeinab is popular among Shiites from Iran, Lebanon and Iraq who go there on pilgrimage to pray at the tomb of Zeinab, a grand-daughter of the Prophet Mohammed.