Thousands of Iraqis marched through Baghdad yesterday to protest against US and British air raids which have drawn a chorus of international concern and criticism from key NATO allies.
Witnesses estimated more than 10,000 people took to the streets of Baghdad yesterday, chanting slogans against US President George W. Bush, who ordered the strike less than a month after taking office.
Demonstrators held up pictures of President Saddam Hussein and burned US and Israeli flags in the biggest protest in Baghdad since four days of Western bombing in December 1998.
"The bombing that Iraq has been subjected to will never terrify us," said Sadeq Raheem, a teacher who joined the demonstration organized by the ruling Baath Party.
Iraq vowed revenge on Saturday for the airstrikes, which it said killed two civilians and wounded more than 20 others. Saddam and his top aides discussed plans for military retaliation in the event of a repeat of the attack.
Washington said US and British planes hit Iraqi radar systems between 8km and 32km from Baghdad using various long-range precision-guided weapons.
The UN office in Baghdad said it had taken limited precautions after the attack but its humanitarian program was continuing. "We are limiting unnecessary travel by our staff," the UN spokesman in Baghdad, George Somerwill, said.
The official Iraqi News Agency (INA) said Western warplanes returned to Iraq within hours of the attack, patrolling a no-fly zone set up after the 1991 Gulf War.
NATO allies have joined a chorus of international concern led by Russia and China.
France, a member of the Gulf War coalition that ended Iraq's 1990-91 occupation of Kuwait, said it wanted an explanation for the airstrike, adding such assaults hindered efforts to solve the Iraq problem.
Turkey, from which US-led warplanes take off to patrol a no-fly zone over northern Iraq, rebuked Washington for failing to inform it before the assault was launched.
A Spanish foreign affairs spokesman said Spain and other European allies had not been informed of the raid.
The Arab League said the assault had broken international law and would stoke anger across the Arab world.
"The air raids have just complicated the situation and killed innocent people," Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told Italy's La Repubblica newspaper.
"I don't believe Saddam is a threat to the world. Iraq is not a superpower and it doesn't have sophisticated trans-continental missiles," he was quoted as saying.
One of the reported victims was an 18-year-old woman and television pictures showed a man, apparently in his 30s, who was reported to have died in the attack. The Iraqi news agency named the dead as Aliah Atshan Abdullah and Khalil Hameed Alwash.
INA said that after a meeting with aides to discuss the attack, Saddam had ordered the formation of 21 military divisions consisting of Iraqis who have volunteered to fight with Palestinians in their uprising against the Israelis.
Hundreds of Palestinians marched in solidarity with Iraq to condemn the air raids. Iraq has supported the uprising against Israel and Saddam is seen as a hero by many Palestinians for standing up to the West.
Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Israel was following the developments in Iraq although there was no need for immediate action. Israel was hit by Iraqi Scud missiles during the Gulf War.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain was ready to authorize further action against Iraq if Baghdad continued to attack British planes patrolling no-fly zones.
US and British warplanes have often attacked targets in the south and north since Baghdad started to challenge the aircraft in December 1998.
Iraq's Babel newspaper, commenting on the inability of Bush's father to remove Saddam during his time in the White House said: "The new dwarf in the `Black House' will not be able to do any better than his father, who was defeated and left with failure and frustration."
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