In Iraq, 18 government workers and soldiers have been kidnapped in what’s being called a retaliation for the alleged rape of a Sunni woman by Iraq’s Shiite-dominated police. Meanwhile in Baghdad, U.S. troops are continuing a series of raids in Shiite areas.

Shiite leader Sayyid Abbas: “We will demonstrate, men, women and children, demanding the withdrawal of the occupiers from Iraq. As long as the occupiers are in Iraq, they will destroy Islam and Iraq. We will die, we will give everything we have, just for the sake of letting the occupiers to withdraw from Iraq.”