US, Iraqi women march to call for Iraq pullout

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
US and Iraqi women demanding a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq marched on Monday from the United Nations to the US Mission, where peace activist Cindy Sheehan and three others were arrested for criminal trespassing and resisting arrest, police said. The march followed a press conference at UN headquarters where Iraqi women described daily killings and ambulance bombings as part of the escalating violence that keeps women in their homes. Women Say No to War, which helped organize the march and press conference, said Sheehan and three other women were arrested while trying to deliver a petition to the US Mission to the United Nations with more than 60,000 signatures urging the "withdrawal of all troops and all foreign fighters from Iraq." Ann Wright, a former US Army colonel and US diplomat, said in a statement issued by the group that the US Mission refused to send a representative to meet with the delegation and the women refused to leave without delivering the petition.