Families urge end to deaths

As US and British forces prepare to unleash a devastating assault on Fallujah, hundreds of protesters gathered in George Square on Saturday to hear Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon died in a roadside explosion near Basra in June.

Ms Gentle was joined by Dante Zappala, the brother of Sgt Sherwood Baker, who was killed in Baghdad while serving with the US Army for the Iraq Survey Group.

The demo, which called for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq, followed the deaths of three Black Watch soldiers in a suicide bomb attack outside Baghdad.

"When I heard what had happened, it just brought back everything that I had been through, "said Ms Gentle.

"But we're not going to go away and we're not going to stop our campaign until all the soldiers are home from Iraq."

Mr Zappala, from Los Angeles, is a member of US pressure group Military Families Speak Out.

He accused the Bush adminstration of failing in its duty to protect his brother.

"Soldiers are sent out on missions without any specific plan or strategy and any hope that we had for a withdrawal of troops has been lost with the re-election of President Bush."

Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan and Green MSP Chris Ballance also joined forces to condemn the war.

Mr Sheridan told the crowd to be proud of themselves for joining the protest.

"I think that, until recently, about 40 per cent of people supported the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. But now that number stands at 60 per cent or more," he said.

"This war was not fought for anything noble. It was fought for oil."

Mr Ballance added: "100,000 people have been killed in this carnage. We cannot allow it to continue and we should make sure that it never happens again."

The Stop the War Coalition has called a protest at Parliament Square on Wednesday at 5.30pm.

Members of British military families will call for all other families to join together in an urgent national campaign to get the troops out. They will hand in a wreath at Downing Street at 4pm.

The coalition has also called for protesters to demonstrate outside Downing Street and across the country from 5pm the day after the Fallujah attack begins.

For full details log on to www.stopwar.org.uk