On May 30, 2008, thousands of people came out on to the streets in different parts of Iraq to protest against on-going talks between the governments in Washington and Baghdad, on keeping U.S. troops in Iraq beyond 2008.

The United States which invaded Iraq in 2003, now has 155,000 troops stationed in Iraq.

It is reported to be negotiating with the Iraqi government on an agreement aimed at giving a legal basis to U.S. troops remaining in Iraq after December 31, when their United Nations' mandate expires.

In one of the largest demonstrations, several thousand people took to the streets in the Baghdad district of Sadr City. In the Kadhimiya district in northwest Baghdad, hundreds of demonstrators with raised fists marched behind a banner asking the U.N. to "stand with the Iraqi people against this security deal between the government and the occupation."

On May 30, about 1,200 people marched from the Grand Mosque in Kut, 150 km southeast of the capital, towards Baghdad. In the city of Najaf, 160 km south of Baghdad, several hundred demonstrators marched, chanting: "Out, out occupier" and "Iraq won't be an American colony." Protests were also held in Basra and Nassiriya.

Despite its superior military might and the unspeakable atrocities it has committed and continues to commit against the Iraqi people, the U.S. has, over the last 5 years, not been able to justify its occupation of Iraq in the eyes of the Iraqi people or the world’s people. The heroic resistance of the Iraqi people, in the face of heavy odds, continues to assert the illegitimacy of the U.S. aggression and occupation of Iraq.