1)From: Iraq Occupation Focus

 http://www.iraqoccupationfocus.org.uk

On day 500 of the occupation, activists and supporters of Iraq Occupation Focus will be joining other anti-war groups at this important protest against our goverment's continuing involvement in the military occupation of Iraq.

The US and UK troops are killing Iraqi civilians in large numbers in order to crush any challenge to the regime of Iyad Allawi that the coalition has imposed upon the Iraqi people.

Please turn out to show solidarity with ordinary Iraqis and to tell our government that 500 days is 500 days too many. Iraq must be returned to the control of the Iraqi people – the occupation must end now.

2)From: Stop the War Coalition.

 http://www.stopwar.org.uk/bulletin.asp?id=170804

As US troops prepare to approach one of the holiest Muslim sites in the world, the Imam Ali shrine, Iraqis came from all over the country, marching in solidarity with those who are resisting the world's strongest army. The human shields have arrived in Najaf.

Journalists have been ordered out of Najaf. This is not the liberation and democracy that Iraqis had been promised.

The situation for the Coalition forces is detioriating and Iraq's stooge government's only answer to the situation is to use brutal force. While Iraqis are dying and British soldiers come under attack in Basra, Tony Blair is holidaying with his warmonger friend Silvio Berlusconi in Italy.

The Stop the War Coalition, with the Muslim Association of Britain, has called a picket of 10 Downing Street this Friday in response to the situation in Najaf. We are demanding the immediate withdrawal of troops from Najaf and Iraq.


3)From: East Anglia Social Forum website:

 http://www.easf.org.uk/more.php?id=75

As the cycle of violence escalates in Iraq, the UK peace
movement must now try and make its voice heard once again.
The US/UK occupation is using its new Allawi government as a
fig leaf for its actions. In an ominous move, this new authority has
ordered all foreign journalists out of Najaf, with threats of violence.


But thousands of ordinary Iraqis, unarmed civilian men and
women, are now marching to Najaf to defend one of the holiest
sites in the Islamic world. As this escalates, Bush, Blair and their
puppet Allawi government must know that the eyes of the world are
watching.


This latest round of fighting is a result of the Bush/Blair/Allawi
regimes desire for total domination of Iraq. They want to
marginalize ‘troublesome’ groups, and exclude them from the
political process. Thus they have picked a fight with the Sadrist
movement, which represents some of the poorest and most
oppressed of Iraq’s people. These people who inhabit the slums
of Iraq’s cities suffered under Saddam’s vicious repression. Now
the west has a new puppet, who only promises more of the
same.


Fighting is now breaking out and intensifying across Southern
Iraq and involving British Troops. Many people are being killed
every day.


The US/UK military cannot bring peace or democracy to Iraq.
Rather their presence and actions provokes more resistance. As
the situation for the US/UK occupation and their stooge
government gets worse, their only answer is yet ever more brutal
force, repression and violence.


We must call on our government to bring the troops home and
end the occupation of Iraq. Rather than force, the west must give
massive reparations to the Iraqi people. Only this can approach
an apology for the massive death and suffering we have caused
to the Iraqi people over 20 years, by first arming Saddam
Hussein, and then causing so much damage through war,
sanctions and occupation.

Colchester Peace Campaign.
 http://www.colchesterpeace.org.uk