Photos showing US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners drew international condemnation on Friday, with Arabs saying the US campaign to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis was now a lost cause.
"This is the straw that broke the camel's back for America," said Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi. "The liberators are worse than the dictators."
"They have not just lost the hearts and minds of Iraqis but all the Third World and the Arab countries," he said.
The CBS News program 60 Minutes II on Wednesday aired photos taken at the Abu Ghraib prison last year showing US troops abusing Iraqis held at what was once a notorious center of torture and executions under ousted President Saddam Hussein.
The pictures showed US troops smiling, posing, laughing or giving the thumbs-up sign as naked, male Iraqi prisoners were stacked in a pyramid or positioned to simulate sex acts.
The US military has brought criminal charges against six of the soldiers, including indecent acts with another person, maltreatment, battery, dereliction of duty and aggravated assault.
US President George W. Bush said he "shared a deep disgust" at the treatment of Iraqi prisoners after the pictures were published and broadcast around the world.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was "deeply disturbed" by the pictures and that he hoped it was an isolated incident, spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
Britain, the staunchest US ally, condemned the abuse.
"Nobody underestimates how wrong this is," Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman told reporters. "Actions of this kind are in no way condoned by the coalition."
The publicity could not have been worse in the Arab world, with the sexual humiliation in the pictures especially shocking.
"That really, really is the worst atrocity," Atwan said. "It affects the honor and pride of Muslim people. It is better to kill them than sexually abuse them."
Arab satellite television, seen by millions of Arabs and Muslims, began their news bulletins with the pictures, which they said showed the "savagery" of US troops against Iraqi prisoners.
"They [Americans] said Saddam committed crimes against the people, now they are committing more vicious crimes in front of the whole world," said Yemeni university student Faez al-Kaynai.
Egyptian Mahmoud Walid, 28, said: "It quite clearly showed to me the whole insanity of this war. These soldiers are being touted as the saviors of the Iraqi people and America claims to be the moral leader of the world, but ... they have been exposed, the whole world sees them as they really are."
Jamal Khashoggi, media adviser to Saudi Arabia's ambassador in London, said US officials responsible for policy in Iraq should be held responsible for such acts, which he said reflected "deep contempt" for Arabs.
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