Anti-US protest welcomes Biden to Iraq

A fiery protest marked the start on Friday of US Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Iraq, with supporters of the Shi'ite anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr burning the Stars and Stripes. Biden met General Ray Odierno, the top US officer in Iraq, and Christopher Hill, Washington's ambassador in Baghdad, who briefed him on the military and political situation, three days after a major US troop pullback. The vice president's trip, aimed at bridging Iraq's sectarian divide ahead of a complete American military pullout in 2011, comes just after President Barack Obama tasked Biden with overseeing the US departure. A stark reminder of the legacy inherited by Obama's administration, however, came in Sadr City, where hundreds of supporters of Sadr, who is in self-imposed exile, chanted anti-US slogans. "No, no America, no, no... [read full story]                    

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