Global Policy Forum

By Dexter Filkins

Tens of thousands of Iraqis marked the second anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein by marching here in the capital on Saturday to demand the withdrawal of American forces. Meanwhile, one of the most lethal insurgent groups warned Iraqis against joining the army or the police force. Most protesters were followers of Moktada al-Sadr, the rebel Shiite cleric who has led several armed uprisings against American forces but who has recently begun to take part in democratic politics.

The demonstrators gathered at Firdos Square in central Baghdad, where American troops and Iraqis pulled down a huge statue of Mr. Hussein on April 9, 2003, in a moment captured on television cameras and seen around the world. A year ago, the square was sealed off by American soldiers as Mr. Sadr's guerrillas rose up across the country. Despite the symbolism of the day, the rest of Baghdad was mostly quiet. The demonstration was peaceful, and far fewer people took part than the one million Mr. Sadr's aides had predicted. Representatives of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a leading group of Sunni clerics that has expressed sympathy for the guerrilla insurgency, said its followers had taken part in the march.

The marchers echoed the demands by Mr. Sadr and the Sunni clerics: a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces and the release of Iraqi detainees from American-supervised prisons. Banners held aloft during the march also called for a rapid trial for Mr. Hussein and the elevation of Islam as the official religion of Iraq. One of the main chants of the morning, echoed by thousands, was: "No America, no Saddam! Yes to Islam!"

Demonstrators held up large photographs of Mr. Hussein that were taken after his capture, showing the former dictator looking shaggy and old. The marchers also burned large photos of President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain. "We are asking that the occupier leave our country," said Amer Shihab, a university student who had come from Kut in southern Iraq. "Iraq now has enough competent forces to maintain security by itself."

The demonstration illustrated the ability of Mr. Sadr to mobilize his followers peacefully and capitalize on resentment here caused by the presence of more than 150,000 foreign troops. Thousands of demonstrators traveled by bus from southern cities and stayed overnight in the homes of their allies in Sadr City, the impoverished district that is named for Mr. Sadr's father, a revered Shiite cleric believed to have been killed on Mr. Hussein's orders. The district forms the heart of the son's support.

Last year, Mr. Sadr's armed followers, called the Mahdi Army, were routed by American forces after they rose up in cities across the south. The mauling of his army is believed to be one of the chief factors behind Mr. Sadr's entry into the political mainstream. He now commands one of the largest blocs in the Shiite alliance that makes up the government. Still, the principal leaders in the Shiite alliance have publicly said that they want American forces to stay. Mr. Sadr's demonstration on Saturday seemed calculated to show others in the Shiite alliance, not the Americans, how strong he was.

Mr. Sadr, who is wanted in connection with the killing of a rival cleric in 2003, was not seen at the rally. He has been in hiding since August, when American forces entered Najaf to fight his militia after it had seized control of the Imam Ali Shrine, one of holiest sites in Shiite Islam. Other disaffected groups used the occasion on Saturday to denounce the American military presence in Iraq. One was the Iraqi Islamic Party, a predominantly Sunni Muslim party that decided to boycott the elections on Jan. 30 after being threatened by the insurgents. Since then, the party has flirted with taking part in the political process, but has not done so.

In a statement, the Islamic Party blamed the United States for the chaos and destruction that followed the collapse of Mr. Hussein's rule. Since then, the statement said, the presence of American forces has brought only misery to the country. "The 9th of April is a day in which one tyrant fell so that another occupying tyrant could take his place," it said.

Although Sunni Arabs make up only about 20 percent of Iraq's population, they dominated the country for hundreds of years. When the Americans toppled Mr. Hussein, many Sunnis saw themselves as losers, and on Jan. 30, few went to the polls. Despite the harsh talk, several prominent Sunni groups have recently indicated a willingness to consider taking part in the democratic process. That, in turn, has created anxiety among hard-line groups that want to continue fighting the Americans.

Last week, 64 Sunni clerics issued a fatwa, or holy writ, encouraging Iraqi Sunnis to join the police and armed forces. The statement represented a significant break with the past; Iraqi police officers and soldiers have been among the prime targets of the Sunni-dominated insurgency.

On Saturday, insurgent sympathizers passed out leaflets at mosques in Mosul, a Sunni-majority city, threatening Sunnis if they joined the police and armed forces. The leaflets were labeled "Al Qaeda of Mesopotamia," the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who has pledged support to Al Qaeda and is believed responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Iraqi civilians.

"Sunnis must ban their sons from collaborating with the infidel crusaders," the leaflet read. "Allowing Sunnis to join the tyrannical army would make jihad lose its meaning." In Baghdad, officials at Yarmouk Hospital reported that 40 bullet-riddled bodies had been brought there from Yusufiya, a town south of Baghdad known as a haven for insurgents. Also in Baghdad, an aide to Mr. Sadr, Fadhel Abdul-Zahra al-Musawi, was fatally shot Friday night while he drove a car in Dawra, a neighborhood in southern Baghdad. In Mosul, a car bomb killed two Iraqi policemen and a woman working for the agricultural department there.