Iraqi Sunnis stage big anti-government rallies

Reuters - Tens of thousands of protesters from Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority poured onto the streets after Friday prayers in a show of force against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, keeping up a week-old blockade of a highway.

Around 60,000 people blocked the main road through the city of Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of the capital, setting fire to the Iranian flag and shouting "out, out Iran! Baghdad stays free" and "Maliki you coward, don't take your advice from Iran".

Many Sunnis, whose community dominated Iraq until the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, accuse Maliki of refusing to share power and of favoring Shi'ite, non-Arab neighbor Iran.

Protests flared last week after troops loyal to Maliki, who is from the Shi'ite majority, detained bodyguards of his finance minister, a Sunni.

Activists demands include an end to the marginalization of Sunnis, the abolition of anti-terrorism laws they say are used to target them, and the release of detainees.

"I came to Falluja to express my support for their demands. I hope we proceed to Baghdad," said 48-year-old Faiq al-Awazi.

Demonstrations were also held in the northern city of Mosul and in Samarra, where protesters chanted "the people want to bring down the regime", echoing the slogan used in popular revolts that ousted leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

Speaking at a "reconciliation" conference broadcast on television, Maliki said: "It is not acceptable to express something by blocking roads, inciting sedition and sectarianism, killing, or blowing the trumpet of war and dividing Iraq".

The protests are likely to add to concerns the civil war in neighboring Syria, where majority Sunnis are fighting to topple a ruler backed by Shi'ite Iran, will drive Iraq back to the sectarian slaughter of 2005-07.

Militants linked to al Qaeda appear to be regrouping in Anbar and to be joining rebel ranks across the border in Syria.

Protesters in the city of Ramadi in Anbar province raised pictures of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who has lined up against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has sparred increasingly often with Maliki.

In Iraq's Shi'ite south, a small anti-Erdogan protest was held in the holy city of Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) from Baghdad.

Sunni complaints against Maliki grew louder a week ago following the arrest of Finance Minister Rafaie al-Esawi's bodyguards hours after Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd seen as a steadying influence, was flown abroad for medical care.

For many, that was reminiscent of a move to arrest Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi one year ago, just when U.S. troops had withdrawn. Hashemi fled into exile and was subsequently sentenced to death in absentia.

Maliki has sought to divide his rivals and strengthen alliances in Iraq's complex political landscape before provincial elections next year and a parliamentary vote in 2014.

A face-off between the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces over disputed oilfields in the north has been seen as a possible way of rallying Sunni Arab support behind the prime minister.

(Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

By Kamal Naama and Raheem Salman