- CAIRO -- After only a week
of war, Arabs are saying there's a new butcher of Baghdad.
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- Long an epithet for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in
the West, Arab newspapers and citizens said pictures of burnt bodies and
pools of blood in a busy Baghdad neighbourhood proved the name was more
suitable for the American government.
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- "Massacre in Baghdad" screamed a headline in
Lebanon's daily as-Safir on Thursday after two explosions devastated a
street in the Iraqi capital and killed as many as 15 people.
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- Iraqis called it a US attack, while the US military suggested
it might have been a stray Iraqi anti-aircraft missile or sabotage.
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- Egypt's al-Ahrar condemned the "American slaughter
of civilians", while Morocco's L'Opinion called the blasts a "murderous
raid", and Palestinian newspaper al-Hayat al-Jadida mourned the "savage
bombardment" of Baghdad.
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- "They call Saddam Hussein a butcher. Aren't the
Americans butchers? They're worse. They're killing children who've done
nothing wrong," said Iman, a 26-year-old woman working in a Cairo
haberdashery shop
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- Throughout the Arab world, from long-time US allies to
states Washington accuses of sponsoring "terrorism", citizens
were outraged by graphic media images of bodies charred beyond recognition
in a war many believe is a sinister plot to subjugate Arabs and dominate
the region.
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- Innocent victims
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- Many said the Baghdad blasts just confirmed their long-held
fears that innocent civilians would pay the highest price for a war they
increasingly blame on Washington alone.
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- "It has to stop, that's all. There are women, men
and children, innocents who have no connection with the war. It is the
civilians who pay," said Moroccan receptionist Bouchra.
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- Attia, the 55-year-old owner of a ball-bearing shop in
Cairo, stabbed his finger at a page full of pictures of Iraqi children
wounded in the attack and the body of a civilian.
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- "What would happen if the Arabs did this in London
or Manchester or Birmingham?" he asked. Pointing at a picture of a
weeping, injured child, he said: "(British Prime Minister Tony) Blair
has four children, doesn't he? What would happen if this was one of his?"
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- Iraq said on Thursday that more than 350 Iraqi civilians
had been killed since the invasion began a week ago, with women, children
and elderly people making up most of the victims.
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- Ali, a 27-year-old Lebanese lawyer, said the rising civilian
death toll "makes you wonder whether they are really after our blood,
whether we are people who are not allowed to live and must be squashed
like insects".
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- "I pray to God to take them (US and British forces)
all to hell," said Ahmad Shehab, a Syrian civil servant. "Why?
Because they lie and say they want to protect Iraqis. But watch TV and
you will see that all they want to do is to kill Arabs in Iraq and Palestine."
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- Venting anger
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- Analysts say the blow-by-blow media coverage of the war,
replete with daily pictures of blood and gore, is sure to fuel anti-American
sentiment which could trigger renewed protests throughout the Arab world
after Muslim midday prayers on Friday.
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- Thousands of Arabs have held anti-war rallies throughout
the region since the war erupted a week ago, and some of the protests have
turned unusually violent.
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- It may also fan latent anger at Arab governments, who
have bent over backwards to convince their publics they had done all they
could to prevent a war on fellow Arab state Iraq. Many Arabs accuse their
governments of failing to protect their own.
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- "Shame on all Arab leaders who saw this scene and
did nothing to stop the massacres of our Arab brothers in Iraq," said
Abdel-Naser Nadeem, an engineer in Gaza.
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- Some analysts say the protests from the Gulf to the Atlantic
have the potential to undermine regional stability. But most say tough
Arab security services should manage to rein in the fury and ensure the
rallies do not threaten government control.
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- Many Arabs are also angry that popular protests have
failed to match the anti-war fervour in European and other countries much
further from the conflict.
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- While several hundred thousand people marched in Damascus
on Tuesday, most regional demonstrations have been limited to a few thousand
people.
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- "When I look at Egypt which has 70 million people
and I see a protest with a few thousand, what does that mean? That means
there is no Arab solidarity," lawyer Ali said.
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- © 2003 Reuters Ltd
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