- Tens of thousands of Iranians declared
their defiance toward the United States, as Afghan officials said another
US military bungle had cost more innocent lives in the "war on terror".
Marchers converged on the huge Azadi (Freedom) Square in the west of Tehran
to hear the traditional speech by President Mohammad Khatami marking the
23rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution, using the occasion to condemn
repeated US allegations against the country.
In Afghanistan, Deputy Minister of Border Affairs Mirza Ali told AFP that
according to locals in eastern Khost province, three people killed in a
US missile strike there last week were poor villagers, not al-Qaeda terrorists.
"They were collecting metal -- bits of exploded bomb -- when they
were attacked," Ali said. "As far as we know, and according to
the locals, they were innocent."
Rallies coupled with anti-US protests were planned in towns and cities
across Iran, which US President George Bush last month accused of being
on an "axis of evil" with Iraq and North Korea.
Khatami condemned the "immature leaders" of the US government,
telling them to "wake up" and change their "mistaken policies"
or risk further terror attacks like September 11.
"Those who have carried out coups d'etats, terrorism, wars and who
have imposed embargoes on you," Khatami told the crowd, referring
to the United States, "are today using ridiculous pressures, but,
above all, this mistaken policy will be harmful to themselves.
"The decisions of immature American leaders are making their country
more and more hated by other people, and the American people are thus in
conflict with other peoples."
Iran and the United States severed diplomatic relations after the revolution
in 1980, and Washington says Tehran is the biggest state sponsor of "terrorism"
in the world today, namely for its support of Palestinian militant groups.
Bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation has been blamed for the deaths of around
3,000 people in the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
US soldiers investigating the results of the Khost missile attack against
alleged al-Qaeda leaders would analyse the DNA in human remains and other
evidence at a base in northern Afghanistan, a spokesman said in Kandahar.
US media and Pentagon officials have speculated that a tall man seen among
the unidentified group which was attacked by a Hellfire missile may have
been bin Laden himself.
But the Washington Post on Monday quoted local villagers as saying the
dead included Mir Ahmad, a man known for his height, and other civilian
residents of the remote area.
Roper said reports those hit were innocent Afghans was "not consistent
with our intelligence".
US senators briefed on intelligence matters said that the best indications
are that bin Laden was alive.
"I believe he is alive," Senator Richard Shelby said.
"We're going to find him ... And we have the will, we have the way
to find him. And we're either going to capture him or kill him. I don't
believe he will surrender."
Other leading American newspapers reported that Afghan farmers were beaten
during their capture and imprisonment at a US base in Kandahar after a
raid on what was initially believed to be an al-Qaeda meeting.
Several of the 27 former prisoners, who were released Wednesday, said two
men lost consciousness during the beatings while others suffered fractured
ribs, loosened teeth and swollen noses, The Washington Post said.
Similar accounts were also published by The New York Times and the Los
Angeles Times.
Copyright © 2002 AFP. All rights reserved.
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