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Mixed reaction as world wakes up to first assault

Over ten thousand anti-war protesters gather in Sydney's central business district prior to marching yesterday. Thousands of Australians protested throughout the country's major capital cities just hours after US-led forces launched their assault on Iraq. PHOTO: AFP

As Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's last chance to avoid invasion slipped away and explosions rocked Baghdad, Australia's leader prayed for the coalition forces but elsewhere protesters gathered outside US diplomatic missions.

In Tokyo, riot police tightened security around the US embassy, where demonstrators staged a fast. Hundreds of activists surrounded the embassy in Manila, clanging pots and blasting anti-war slogans through bullhorns.

Broadcast live from Sydney to Beijing to New York, the first salvos of the long-anticipated invasion of Iraq were met with a mixture of anger, fear and hope from a world deeply divided over the war ahead.

In New York, many people greeted the start of military action against Iraq with support and relief that the waiting was over.

"It's about time," said Irving Levine, 71, who spent a year displaced from his home because of the Sept. 11 attacks. "It's the best medicine for anti-Americanism around the world I can imagine."

But around the globe, the reaction was mixed.

Anti-war activists stage a die-in protest over the US war on Iraq in a rally outside the US embassy in Manila yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

"I came here because I wanted to do something," said college student Hiroichiro Oe, one of six demonstrators fasting outside the US embassy in Tokyo as riot police in heavy body armor stood nearby.

"Ordinary people are going to be the victims of this war," he said.

About 200 people joined the demonstration outside the embassy. A beefed up contingent of police with shields and staffs looked on, but there were no clashes.

"It's outrageous -- they have no just cause for war," said Fumio Naotsuka, a teacher. "America is trying to change the regime in Iraq, and that's just arrogant."

"The war has begun so we are protesting. We will not sit in class and pretend everything is normal while our government helps carry out this massacre in our name."

Simon Butler, Sydney University activist

Just before the air raid sirens began to wail in Baghdad, one of US President George W. Bush's staunchest supporters, Australian Prime Minister Howard, went to church to pray for the safe return of the 2,000 troops he has committed to the US-led coalition.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo also voiced solidarity with Bush.

"The Philippines is part of the coalition of the willing," she said in a speech at the Philippine Military Academy in northern Baguio city.

"The war in Iraq is a reality that we expected. We expect it to be surgical, short and swift," she said.

But many political leaders faced a public that remained strongly opposed to the war, which was launched without the mandate of the UN Security Council, where France, Russia and Germany led efforts to pursue diplomacy, not force.

"This war has broken out because of American leaders' will to dominate the region. It's a war of conquest," the French Communist Party said in a statement.

The Muslim Council of Britain, which fears military action against Saddam will sour relations between Britain and Muslim countries, condemned the outbreak of war and said it was a "black day in our history."

"Our government should not have been a party to this conflict which has only undermined the United Nations, our own democracy and the rule of law," said the council's secretary general Iqbal Sacranie.

Britain has sent 40,000 troops to the Persian Gulf.

Officially, Japan is firmly behind Bush. In a country where the memories of World War II are still painful, however, even top officials expressed regret that force couldn't be averted.

"I'm feeling mixed emotions," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told reporters shortly before the first blasts were heard in Baghdad.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in a televised meeting with the media, stressed that though Japan supports the US attack on Iraq, it would not take part in combat.

"We hope that the war ends promptly," he said, adding that Tokyo is focusing on what it can do to help in the country's rehabilitation process after the conflict is over.

A poll released on Tuesday showed 71 percent of voters oppose Australian involvement in US-led strikes on Iraq without an explicit UN mandate. Protest groups were preparing for rallies in major cities this weekend.

Students began leaving Australian schools and universities to protest the war and Australia's involvement in it.

"The war has begun so we are protesting," Sydney University activist Simon Butler said. "We will not sit in class and pretend everything is normal while our government helps carry out this massacre in our name."

The students were expected to mass in downtown Sydney. Peace activists also were planning to converge on the US embassy in Canberra.

Protests were expected elsewhere as well.

In the first hours of the attack, Pakistan's Interior Ministry spokesman Iftikar Ahmed said he expected small protests.

"Security arrangements have been made to handle these protests, but with tact," he added.

"We will do it without the use of force," Ahmed said.

Elsewhere in the Muslim world, some prayed for a quick end to the conflict.

Yunus Said, a Malaysian Muslim, had just finished prayers when he was told that the US-led strike on Iraq had begun.

"I have just prayed that war would be averted today," said Yunus, wearing a white skull cap as he emerged from a mosque near the 452m Petronas Twin Towers in central Kuala Lumpur.

"Now all I can pray is that it will be end quickly for the sake of the Iraqi people," he said.

Leading members of the 116-member Non-Aligned Movement -- South Africa, Malaysia, Cuba -- denounced the action against Iraq as "an illegitimate act of aggression."
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