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More than 10,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of Baghdad yesterday to protest a series of joint U.S./British air strikes. The bombings destroyed dozens of radar installments along the United Nations sanctioned `no-fly’ zone near Baghdad.
Demonstrators burned pictures of U.S. President George W. Bush, a collection of American, Israeli and British flags and chanted slogans against Western interference.
“The bombing that Iraq has been subjected to will never terrify us,” Sadeq Raheem, a teacher who joined the demonstration organized by the ruling Baath Party, said.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has continuously refused to acknowledge the parameters set by an international council at the close of the Persian Gulf War to halt Iraqi military movement in the north and the south of the country.
The attack against Iraq, described by President Bush as routine, was the biggest blow against Saddam Hussein’s military in more than two years and involved two dozen attack planes armed with precision-guided missiles.
“A routine mission was conducted to enforce the `no-fly’ zone over southern Iraq,” Bush said yesterday in a nationally televised press conference. “It was a mission about which I was informed and I authorized. But I repeat, it’s a routine mission.”
The raids however, besides drawing vows of organized revenge from Hussein, have been criticized by the other three permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
“[The Kremlin] decisively criticizes any U.S. act of force regardless of whom it is directed against, if the actions are conducted outside the context of U.N. Security Council decisions.” Sergei Prikhodko, deputy head of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said according to Interfax news agency.
In direct defiance of U.N. sanctions, Russia has sent several planes carrying humanitarian supplies to Iraq.
“The air raids have just complicated the situation and killed innocent people,” Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in NYTimes.com.
According to London-based Amnesty International reports, one of the reported victims was an 18-year-old woman.
Additionally Iraqi television pictures yesterday showed a man, approximately in his 30s, who was reported to have died in the attack. The Iraqi News Agency named the dead civilians as Aliah Atshan Abdullah and Khalil Hameed Alwash.
Iraqi officials reported that after a meeting with aides to discuss the attack, Hussein has ordered the formation of 21 military divisions consisting of Iraqis who have volunteered to fight with Palestinians in their uprising against Israeli and Western interference.
Hundreds of Palestinians marched in solidarity with Iraq to condemn the air raids. Iraq has supported the uprising against Israel and Saddam is seen as a hero by many Palestinians for standing up to the West.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said more organized U.N. action would follow unless Hussein stopped military movement in the `no-fly’ zones.
Blair, speaking Saturday on CNN.com, said Friday’s raids against Iraqi air defense systems were “a limited operation with the sole purpose of defending the pilots and aircrew who patrol the no-fly zones.”
U.S. and British warplanes have often attacked targets in the south and north since Baghdad started to challenge the aircraft in December 1998.
Meanwhile the Iraqi press continued to verbally protest the bombings. The independent Babel newspaper said: `’The new dwarf in the `Black House’ will not be able to do any better than his father, who was defeated and left with failure and frustration.”
