Iraqi Shias stage mass anti-US protests

An American soldier was killed in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad, the military said. At least 1,628 US military members have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

In an effort to curb the daily violence, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said he will travel to Damascus to appeal in person for the government to take stronger steps to block insurgents from entering Iraq via Syria. Al-Jaafari and American officials blame foreign fighters for plotting many of the attacks.

A picture of Saddam Hussein wearing only his underwear appeared on the front pages of the New York Post and Britain's The Sun. The papers said the pictures, taken in the former dictator's Baghdad prison cell, were provided by an unidentified US military official. The US military condemned the photos and launched an immediate investigation into who took them.

Tensions spiralled throughout Iraq, particularly in its southern Shia heartland, as more than 10,000 protesters heeded a call by anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to step on and drive over American and Israeli flags painted on roads outside mosques. Many of the worshippers were chanting or waving the Quran, Islam's holy book.

Al-Sadr, a burly, black-bearded cleric, launched two uprisings against US forces in Baghdad and Najaf in April and August last year, then went into hiding before surfacing Monday to demand that US-led forces withdraw from Iraq.

His appeal came after US and Iraqi forces detained 13 al-Sadr supporters during a raid this week on a Shia mosque in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad.

Crowds attended angry services in the Shia-dominated cities of Najaf, Kufa, and Nasiriyah, where a gunfight broke out between al-Sadr supporters and guards protecting a local provincial governor's office.