Sat, Jul 17, 2004 - Page 7 News List

Fallujah inspires US foes across Arab world

SYMBOL OF RESISTANCE US Marines withdrew from the Iraqi city after a three-week siege failed to restore order, and now it has become an icon from Palestine to Libya

AP , CAIRO

Though foreigners are playing a role in Iraq, most of the anti-US fighters are believed to be Iraqis motivated by nationalism, not extremist Islam. Many Arabs who draw pride from Fallujah aren't interested in going to Iraq because they have their own battles to fight, some with guns and bombs, some with words.

Abu Qutadah, an al-Qaeda suspect jailed in Britain, published a poem in an Arab newspaper likening Fallujah to a West Bank town invaded by Israel in 2002 to root out suicide bombers.

Fallujah, he wrote, is "the sister of Jenin in fire and light."

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