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U.S., Britain Roundly Denounced As Heavy-Handed After Baghdad Raid
WASHINGTON
& CAIRO, Feb 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States and Britain were condemned Saturday from almost every corner of the globe following an air raid over Baghdad, with officials and media accusing Washington and London of overreaching their power and showing disregard for civilians.
Washington said the raids on the suburbs of Baghdad had attacked command and control centers after increased Iraqi threats towards allied warplanes controlling the skies of southern Iraq.
"The mission, involving more than 50 aircraft in all, was the largest of its kind since a U.S.-British air war on Iraq in December 1998," reported the a correspondent in Baghdad.
The strike distanced the United States from nearly all of its Middle East allies, with only Israeli and Kuwaiti officials commenting indirectly on the operation.
Some of the toughest criticism came from Russia, whose Middle East envoy Alexander Saltanov said on a visit to Syria that "the strikes will not produce any positive results."
In Moscow, defense ministry official General Leonid Ivashov said the attack "leaves Russia in no doubt" that Washington is seeking to "monopolize the role of being a world policeman."
"What the American military is in the process of doing, at the beginning of the new U.S. administration, is a threat to international security and the entire international community," Ivashov told the Interfax news agency.
Iraq says two people were killed and 20 wounded in the Friday raid, the first on the Iraqi capital in more than two years, which the Pentagon said was ordered to stem an increased threat from air defenses to U.S. and British aircraft enforcing flight restrictions in southern Iraq.
In China, foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao condemned the air attacks and expressed Beijing's "deep regrets to the innocent civilians killed and injured by this."
"China opposes the armed intervention by any U.N. member state under any circumstances against any other nation without the express consent of the Security Council," Chinese delegation to the U.N. spokesman Meng Li said in a statement.
France, the other permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, also criticized the air raids, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying Paris has several times expressed "incomprehension and disappointment" at the strikes.
France stopped participating in U.S. and British air patrols in southern Iraq in December 1998, citing humanitarian concerns.
Middle East condemnation of the raid was led by Iran, where official Radio Tehran denounced "signs of the adventurism of the new administration of George W. Bush, ... [who] is seeking to demonstrate his strength against Saddam Hussein."
In Cairo, Arab League secretary general Esmat Abdel Meguid said the attacks had "no justification" and provoked "angry sentiments and discontent in the Arab world."
The Egyptian parliament declared its "condemnation of any aggression against the Iraqi people."
Anger over the raids fed passions in the Palestinian territories, where thousands of demonstrators held up Saddam portraits and set ablaze the U.S., British and Israeli flags and pictures of Bush. Some protesters clashed with Israeli troops, although no one was injured.
Many Palestinians considered Saddam a hero during the 1991 Gulf War, when Baghdad fired Scud missiles at Tel Aviv, Israel's largest city.
In Israel, Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh warned that, "the threats and risks coming from Iraq should not be minimized."
"For two and a half years there has not been the slightest international control in Iraq, and Saddam Hussein has produced weapons of mass destruction and missiles with impunity and is trying to obtain nuclear arms," Sneh told Israeli radio.
Warplanes raiding Baghdad flew out of Kuwait, whose Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah stressed that "the victims of the oppression of the Iraqi regime are the Iraqi and the Kuwaiti peoples."
But Kuwait, which Iraq occupied from August 1990 until a U.S.-led coalition drove it out in the Gulf war, tried to keep a low profile, saying it "has never and will never interfere in Iraq's internal or external affairs."
There was no immediate reaction from Saudi Arabia, where U.S. and British planes are also stationed. But Turkey, the base for the planes enforcing no-fly zones over northern Iraq, expressed regret "that civilians were affected."
"Ten years after the Gulf War, there is still no peace and stability in Iraq.
... Therefore, the new U.S. administration should review with Turkey the Iraq question at first opportunity," Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said.
In Jordan, a key U.S. ally, which also has close ties to Iraq, more than 200 people demonstrated their support outside the Iraqi embassy, while Foreign Minister Abdel Ilah al-Khatib said Amman "never condones the use of military force against Iraq."
"Anything related to Iraq's military capability should be handled within the context of the Security Council resolutions," Khatib said.
He was speaking alongside visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Thorbjoern Jagland, who called the raids "unfortunate" but called on Saddam to "now comply with all U.N. resolutions so that one could suspend the sanctions against Iraq."
Opposition to the Baghdad raid also united India and Pakistan, which both insisted the operation was in violation of international resolutions and caused civilians unjustifiable suffering.
Cuba called the raid part of a "long series of criminal and hostile actions which various U.S. administrations have carried out against Iraqi territory."
One rare voice in support of the raids was Canada, where a foreign ministry spokesman said Ottawa backs "all means necessary to ensure that the military forces under the regime of Saddam Hussein do not resume their assaults on the Kurds in the north of Iraq and the Shiite population."
Great Britain also defended its part in the attacks saying the bombing was justified under international law, stating the strikes were needed for the defense of British soldiers.
"We are quite confident that in international law our pilots have the right to defend themselves when they come under attack," British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon told BBC radio.
The British defense chief also point to country's policy of supporting the United States in the attack, saying, "We have operated alongside the United States, our closest ally, under the last administration and under this new administration."
"Our pilots are taking risks alongside U.S. pilots and it is right that we should take appropriate decisions to protect them," he added.
U.S. media were mostly favorable toward the strike, with The Washington Post praising "a welcome reinvigoration" of Iraq policy and The New York Times calling the raid "a timely signal to Saddam Hussein that the Bush administration ... will not shy away from using force to contain any new Iraqi military threat."
Within Iraq, President Saddam Hussein vowed Saturday that Iraq would retaliate against the air strikes, condemning the bombing as "criminal aggression".
"This new crime will not go without dissuasive punishment for the American aggressors," said Al -Qadissiya, the armed forces' newspaper.
The official newspaper said Baghdad vowed to teach Bush, "son of the viper [former president] George Bush, a lesson which he will never forget."
By launching Friday's attack, Bush, whose father was in office during the 1991 Gulf War, had "shown his hatred for Iraq," Al Qadissiya stated.
A notable member of Saddam's ruling Baath party urged the Arab world to hit U.S. and British interests in the region in counterstrike for the bombings. "The Arab masses must express their fury by attacking American and British interests in the Arab world," Saad Kassem Hammudi said.
Hammudi called upon Arab countries to reproach U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell during his regional tour later this month.
"The governments of brotherly Arab countries on Colin Powell's tour must refuse to receive this war criminal," he said.
Iraqi authorities gave no further details on losses, and did not organize any visits to the hit sites for journalists.
"Iraq will continue to fight them [the enemies] on land, in the air and at sea. Iraq will finally win," a communiqué said.
Iraqi Health minister Medhat Mubarak said the bombing mainly wounded women, children and elderly, stating that many of them were in extreme critical condition with some requiring emergency surgical operations.
Linking the strikes with the current Palestinian Intifada, Saddam denounced the strikes as "a Zionist conspiracy," pledging that Iraq will never stop supporting the Palestinian people.
"Palestine is an Arab and free state," he said.
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