Hundreds of Iraqis set alight US and Israeli flags on Wednesday as they celebrated the impending pullout of American forces from the country in the former insurgent bastion of Fallujah. Shouting slogans in support of the "resistance," the demonstrators held up banners and placards inscribed with phrases like, "Now we are free" and "Fallujah is the flame of the resistance."
Surrounded by the Iraqi army, demonstrators carried posters bearing photos of apparent insurgents, faces covered and carrying weapons. They also held up pictures of US soldiers killed and military vehicles destroyed in the two major offensives against the city in 2004. "We are proud to have driven the occupier out of Iraq, at the cost of enormous sacrifice," said Khalid al-Alwa, the local leader of the Islamic Party, a Sunni Muslim grouping.
The demonstration, which was held in Al-Khadra Mohammediyah Square in the centre of Fallujah, was dubbed the first annual "festival to celebrate the role of the resistance." The United States is due to pull out the last of its troops from Iraq by the end of December, more than eight years after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.