Muslim protesters burn a banner during anti U.S. demonstration in Multan, Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, January 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – As the United States continued its massive military buildup for a looming war on Iraq, people in Pakistan and Bahrain, in two close U.S. allies, took to the streets Friday, January 3, protesting the American war schemes.

In Pakistan, thousands of people threatened Americans in the country and burnt effigies of U.S. President George W. Bush in nationwide rallies against a war on Iraq and perceived U.S. aggression in its hunt for al-Qaeda elements.

"If the U.S. attacks Iraq there will be open war here," Maulana Samiul Haq, a leader of the newly powerful Islamic party alliance, hollered before some 400 impassioned protestors outside Islamabad's Red Mosque, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"No American will be safe here," he warned, as protestors yelled "Death to America" and brandished placards inscribed with "Stop Muslim Genocide" and "We Stand By Our Iraqi Muslims."

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Islamic bloc, which won massive gains in October elections, led rallies in the capital, the north-west city of Peshawar, commercial port city Karachi, southwestern city of Quetta and the Punjabi cities of Lahore and Multan.

Some 2,000 protestors marched through Lahore chanting "war against Iraq is war against Islam."

In Peshawar, more than 3,000 protestors hit the streets for rallies led by MMA chiefs Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

"We are with Iraq. We will stay with Iraq," Ahmed said.

"An attack on Iraq will be considered an attack on Islam," declared Rehman.

In Karachi, where only a few hundred protestors turned out, MMA president Shah Ahmed Noorani warned of "war" by jihad groups if the U.S. attacks Iraq.

"It is in their own interest not to attack Iraq, otherwise it can be an all-out war between the Americans and the jihad forces," Noorani told AFP.

In Multan around 200 veiled women staged anti-U.S. protests.

Anti-U.S. feeling in the country has been fanned in recent weeks by several FBI arrests of doctors and the U.S. bombing of a religious school on the Afghan border Sunday, sparking accusations that Washington is treating its key war on terror ally with contempt.

In the semi-autonomous border areas, heavily-armed tribal protestors waving the flags of Islamic parties torched Bush effigies and struck the models with the butts of AK-47 rifles.

"The Americans have crossed all limits in Pakistan," Haq declared at the Islamabad rally.

"They are interfering in our affairs. They are raiding private homes and arresting innocent Muslims, including doctors. This is intolerable."

"The Americans are bombing our areas without any fear and shame."

Muslim protestors chant anti -U.S. slogans during a demonstration in the southwestern town of Quetta, Pakistan

Pakistan's moderate government, a key U.S. ally in its war on terrorism, opposes unilateral action against Iraq, but has said it would support any decision by the United Nations Security Council, AFP said.

Islamabad took up one of the Council's 10 non-permanent seats on Wednesday, January 1, but has declined to say how it would vote in a decision on war against Iraq.

Extra police and paramilitary troops were deployed around mosques and outside foreign diplomatic missions to guard against outbreaks of violence, but no scuffles were reported.

Pakistan's government has been a pivotal supporter of the U.S.-led campaign to crush al-Qaeda and Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan and the hunt for so-called extremists in Pakistan's cities and border areas.

Washington's decision last month to subject U.S.-based Pakistanis to extra scrutiny has fuelled public anger that Pakistan is not being acknowledged for its efforts to help stamp out the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Bahrainis march at U.S. war plans

In the Bahraini capital Manama, hundreds of people took to the streets for the second consecutive week on Friday to protest U.S. war plans against Iraq and show solidarity with both the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples.

"Listen, listen Abu Salman (Bahrain's King Hamad), your people are shouting against the Americans," chanted the protesters, who included members of parliament, liberal political and human rights activists, and Arab residents of the Gulf archipelago.

"No to war," said banners raised by the demonstrators, who marched after leaving a mosque where they attended weekly Muslim prayers.

"The American is to blame, it's the oil he is after," "no bases, no assistance (to a U.S. attack on Iraq), no stockpiling (of U.S. equipment)," the protesters chanted.

"Iraq will be but the first step in a scheme ushering in U.S. occupation of the whole Gulf region and control of its resources ... through the overthrow of some regimes," Hassan al-Aali, who heads a non-governmental organization of solidarity with the Iraqi people, told the marchers.

His group called for Friday's protest in conjunction with a Bahraini association which lobbies against any normalization of ties with Israel.

The march ended with the signing of a petition to the U.S. ambassador "rejecting" U.S. war threats against Iraq.

It was the second Friday in a row that Bahrainis staged a street protest to denounce U.S. threats to attack Iraq on grounds that it is pursuing weapons of mass destruction.

Several hundred Bahrainis demonstrated after the previous Friday's prayers in Muharraq, some 10 kilometers (six miles) north of Manama.

Aali told AFP last week that his group also planned a demonstration on January 18 to coincide with anti-war protests in the United States.

The Bahraini government chided protesters who burnt the U.S. flag during a November 29 pro-Palestine demonstration in the mainly Shiite Muslim town of Diraz east of Manama.

Bahrain, a major non-NATO ally of Washington, is home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet and thousands of U.S. military personnel.

In March last year, Bahrainis staged a series of demonstrations against Israel and Washington's support for the Jewish state after Israeli forces launched a large-scale military offensive in the occupied West Bank.

On April 5, 2002, a man died and more than 100 people were injured during a demonstration in which some 20,000 mostly Bahraini protesters took part and during which stones and petrol bombs were lobbed at the U.S. embassy in