Thousands of Iraqis marched through the streets of Baghdad yesterday to protest against Friday's air raids. The US and British bombings of military targets around the Iraqi capital killed three and injured 30, the official Iraqi INA agency said yesterday in a revised toll.
Palestinians demonstrated in the Israeli-occupied territories and, in the Far East, anti-US protests erupted in Pakistan and Malaysia. Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, a leading supporter of the 1991 US-led military coalition which drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait, dismissed the claim that President Saddam Hussein remained a threat, saying "the air raids have complicated the situation".
His Foreign Minister, Mr Amr Moussa, agreed, calling the raid "a serious negative step" which "violates Iraq's security and sovereignty" and jeopardises the ongoing UN effort to restart inspections of Iraqi weapons sites after a halt of two years.
It is not clear whether talks between the UN and Iraq scheduled for February 26th-27th will go ahead. Egyptian opposition was echoed by the Arab League Secretary General, Mr Esmet Abdel Maguid, who said the US and Britain had "to change their attitude. This is not the way to change things in Iraq. The Iraqi people are not going to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
The way to change things is to lift the sanctions. Arab public opinion increasingly supports the people of Iraq" in demanding the lifting of sanctions, he said. Jordan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdul Illah al-Khatib, asserted: "Jordan has repeatedly rejected the use of force. Anything related to Iraq's military capability should be handled within the context of the Security Council resolutions."
Members of Jordanian professional unions staged a sit-in near the Iraqi embassy to condemn the raids. The chairman of the Bar Association, Mr Saleh Armouti, called the attack "flagrant aggression" against Iraq which should be answered by an "immediate lifting of sanctions". Women's organisations issued a leaflet stating: "The aggression is intended as a warning to next month's Arab summit to continue the sanctions against Iraq and halt any rapprochement between Arab states and Iraq."
Arab leaders are expected to formally welcome Iraq back into the Arab fold during the summit.
Radio Tehran accused the Bush administration of "adventurism", while Syria deplored the attacks as "unjustified". An official said: "The attack creates a new challenge for the Arab nations at a time when Israeli aggression against the Palestinians is escalating, without a single move by the US to halt this aggression."
The Lebanese daily, al-Safir, accused the US of trying to distract the world's attention from the coming to power of Likud's Mr Ariel Sharon in Israel.
Ankara, which permits US and British aircraft to fly missions over Iraq from bases in Turkey, announced that its facilities were not used for this operation. The Turkish Foreign Minister, Mr Ismail Cem, said Turkey had not been informed beforehand: "The event is a serious one. We are in contact with the US administration and we don't want such events repeated."
The Prime Minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit, added: "It's sad that a need was felt to resort to such action and that civilians as well as military targets were harmed." Saudi Arabia, blamed by Iraq and castigated by its own citizens for allowing attacks to be mounted from its territory, made no official comment.