- Muslims and Arabs will attack American targets everywhere
if the United States goes to war against Iraq, a senior member of the militant
Islamic movement Hamas said in Gaza on Friday.
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- He made the new threat during a march by 3,000 Palestinians
through the winding streets of Gaza City on the 12th anniversary of the
1991 Gulf War. Some protesters fired shots shot in the air and others held
portraits of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
-
- "If Iraq is attacked... all American targets will
be open targets for every Muslim, Arab or Palestinian," Mahmoud al-Zahar,
told reporters.
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- "Any attack against Iraq will be answered by resistance
everywhere and American interests everywhere will be targeted. We say that
all American targets will be open targets to every Muslim, Arab, or Palestinian,"
he said.
-
- Islamic groups and secular factions at the march issued
their own statement which condemned Arab states who were "silent against
the assaults on Iraq and Palestine."
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- Protesters chanted slogans against U.S. President George
W. Bush, whose father was president during the 1991 war in which Iraqi
troops were driven out of Kuwait.
-
- "Bush junior is a coward. Iraq will not be humiliated,"
they chanted under Palestinian and Iraqi flags.
-
- The crowd had gathered at Gaza's Palestine square, after
the weekly Moslem Friday prayers held in several mosques in the city. It
headed for the yard of the unknown soldier in Remal neighborhood, before
arrived at the building of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
-
- The demonstrators chanted slogans denouncing U.S. warnings
to hit Iraq, shouting "George Bush listen to us, Iraq will never surrender."
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- Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Islamic
militant Hamas movement, as well as leaders of other political factions,
led the demonstration.
-
- Palestinians have regularly held rallies and marches
in support of Saddam in recent weeks.
-
- Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat supported
Saddam during the 1991 war but has been more cautious this time, calling
for a peaceful resolution of its standoff with the United States which
has called on Iraq to disarm.
-
- Iraq has paid millions of dollars to families of Palestinians
killed during the uprising, including those of suicide bombers.
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