Cairo: Hundreds of thousands of protesters came out in various cities across the Middle East on Friday against the unaccountability of their dictatorial leaders and express solidarity with the uprising in Libya that President Muammar Gaddafi is suppressing the protestors with force.
In Iraq, demonstrations for better government services spiraled out of control in many places. Protesters burned buildings and security forces fired on crowds in Baghdad, Mosul, Ramadi and in Salahuddin Province, north of the capital, killing at least four people.
The violence took place in Iraq after demonstrators responded to a call for a “day of rage,” despite attempts by the government to keep people from taking to the streets.
Large-scale demonstrations in Yemen appeared to proceed more peacefully, even festively. More than 100,000 people poured into the streets on Friday, after Yemen’s embattled president pledged on Wednesday not to crack down on protesters.
In Egypt, tens of thousands of people returned to Tahrir Square in central Cairo to celebrate one full month since the start of the popular revolution that toppled President Mubarak.
In Bahrain, pro-democracy demonstrations on a scale that appeared to the largest ever seen in the tiny Persian Gulf nation blocked miles of downtown roads and highways in Manama, the capital, on Friday. The crowds overflowed from Pearl Square in the center of the city for the second time in a week. A small number of black flags — a Shiite mourning symbol — was witnessed for the first time in the vast sea of red and white, the colors of Bahrain.
Opposition leaders had also pledged to march to Tripoli from other cities, though the roads were reported to be thick with checkpoints and heavily armed forces that remain loyal to Colonel Qaddafi’s 40-year rule. But tens of thousands did turn out in Benghazi, the eastern city where the Libyan rebellion started over a week ago, and which is now in control of the opposition.
In Yemen, where protesters have faced sporadic violence from security forces and government supporters, roughly 100,000 people massed in the southern city of Taiz for demonstrations dubbed “Martyrs’ Friday,” in honor of two protesters who died in a grenade attack last week.
At the same time in the capital, tens of thousands of people were pouring into a square near the main gates of Sana University to call for the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh amid a tight security presence.
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