BAGHDAD - Shiite villagers paraded empty coffins at mock funerals near Baghdad on Thursday, in protest of alleged al-Qaida in Iraq attacks that killed as many as 45 people in a single village in recent months.
Hundreds of residents and Muslim sheiks from Dwelah, a Shiite enclave about 45 miles north of Baghdad, held a huge procession in the Bawya area south of the capital because they feared reprisals if they did so in their hometown.
Dust blew through crowded streets as men hoisted flag-draped coffins over their heads, chanting, "We remember the victims!"
Another rally snaked through thoroughfares in Baghdad's mixed Karradah neighborhood, where Dwelah residents and their Shiite brethren from the capital demanded more protection from the Iraqi government.
"We are holding this symbolic funeral procession for our sons who were killed by Sunni extremists. It all happened because of the government's ignorance and incompetent local security authorities," said sheik Ghalib al-Furaiji.
"We call on the prime minister to intervene. Local authorities are concentrating only on Baqouba, and ignoring outlying villages," he said.......
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