Mass protests staged in Lebanon, Iraq against Israeli hits on Iran
BEIRUT/BAGHDAD: Angry protesters on Friday took to the streets in Lebanon and Iraq to denounce Israel's ongoing military campaign on Iran.
In the Lebanese capital Beirut, hundreds of supporters of the Hezbollah movement poured into the city's southern Dahieh suburb in a show of solidarity with Iran.
The protest began after the Friday prayers outside Al Qaeem Mosque in a Hezbollah stronghold where crowds chanted death to Israel, the United States and President Donald Trump.
Demonstrators waved Iranian, Palestinian and Hezbollah flags; and voiced unwavering allegiance to Tehran.
"America is the great Satan," shouted one protester, as loudspeakers played a recorded speech by the late Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air strike in September.
Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar addressed the crowd, condemning Israeli threats against Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"No one can threaten the leaders of Iran," he declared.
As the rally unfolded, Israeli drones flew at low altitudes over Beirut and its southern suburbs.
Similarly, tens of thousands of Iraqis rallied in various parts of the country including the capital Baghdad and protested against the Israeli attacks on neighbouring Iran, witnessed said.
The demonstrations were in response to a call from Iraq's Muqtada al Sadr.
Dozens of clerics led the protests that took place in several Iraqi areas, including the holy provinces of Karbala and Najaf, amidst intense heat.
Some protesters chanted slogans against the Israeli strikes on Iran and called on their government to block Israel from using Iraqi airspace to launch the strikes, witnesses said.
Iraq, which maintains good ties with both Washington and Tehran, is trying to stay clear of the fighting between Iran and Israel.
An umbrella grouping known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, has repeatedly claimed strikes on US bases inside Iraq and neighbouring Syria with drones and missiles since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023. — dpa
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