Baghdad, Iraq ? The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq closed a newspaper, charging the Shiite weekly with “intent to disrupt general security and incite violence” against occupation forces.

The newspaper closed in Baghdad is controlled by Moqtada Sadr, a young cleric who has invoked a revered family name to organize a volatile following among the young and dispossessed in the Shiite slums of the capital. Hours after U.S. military officers shut down the newspaper, minibuses had ferried in enough protesters to fill the square opposite its padlocked offices.

“We don’t want another Saddam!” the crowds chanted, alluding to U.S. administrator Paul Bremer. The order to shutter the newspaper for 60 days was delivered by the troops, who offered apologies as they led writers and editors out of the building, staff members said.

“That chain you see on the door is one of the American symbols of freedom,” said Ali Alyassari, the editor, in a park across the street from the offices. “Do you think this is political freedom?”

Coalition officials say Sadr has skirted arrest for preaching resistance to the occupation and maintaining a militia that U.S. officers blame for a lethal attack in October on a U.S. patrol. Bremer’s letter charged the newspaper with fomenting attacks by falsely reporting that an Apache helicopter was responsible for damage that was caused by a car bomb and carrying a headline in the same issue that read: “Bremer follows in the footsteps of Saddam.”