BAGHDAD, Aug 13 (AFP) - Thousands of supporters of Shiite Muslim militia leader Moqtada Sadr, who was reported wounded on Friday in the besieged city of Najaf, marched through Baghdad, saying they wanted to die as martyrs in his name.
The crowd set out from the cleric`s Baghdad bastion of Sadr City, in the northeast of the capital, for the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses some government offices, protestors said.
But at one point along the route, police were called out to defuse a multiple car bomb that could have caused carnage had it detonated.
"We found six missiles connected and ready to explode. A major tragedy was diverted because there were hundreds of protestors passing along the road," said police Lieutenant Mohammed Jassem.
"We want to be martyrs for you Moqtada Sadr" and "He`s the bridge to paradise," the men chanted as they walked and drove through the centre of the city packed into buses, trucks and cars, said an AFP correspondent.
The men, none of them armed, denounced Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who has pressed Sadr`s Mehdi Army to surrender after more than a week of fierce fighting against US troops and Iraqi forces in the holy city of Najaf.
"We want to hold a peaceful demonstration outside the convention centre," inside the Green Zone, said one of the protestors who refused to give his name.
The men held aloft a sea of flags and carried banners, on which was scrawled "Shoot down American planes" and "Leave Moqtada Sadr".