Anger After Prayers In Mideast, Asia

Anger against the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq erupted in protests across the Middle East after Islamic prayers on Friday, with crowds provoking the police to fire shots in the air in Iran and tear gas in Jordan.

Iranians demonstrated in their hundreds of thousands, with protesters denouncing what they called "Bush's barbarism" and "Saddam Hussein's dictatorship."

Tens of thousands of Palestinians demonstrated in support of Iraq, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger, in one of the biggest show of support yet by Palestinians for Iraq. They marched in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, carrying pictures of Saddam Hussein, and called upon him to fire missiles at Tel Aviv. Protesters also burned effigies of George Bush, Tony Blair and Ariel Sharon, and American, Israeli and British flags.

In Amman, about 3,000 anti-war protesters clashed with riot police who blocked them from reaching the Israeli Embassy. The police used batons to drive the demonstrators away from the embassy.

In the southern city of Maan, a municipal guard threw a tear gas grenade when part of a demonstration of 6,000 people approached the city hall, a witness told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In Cairo, more than 15,000 protesters marched from the Al-Azhar mosque through the old part of the city, chanting "with our soul and blood, we redeem you Baghdad."

In Asia, some of Friday's antiwar protests were nonviolent.

Doves were set free in Pakistan and Muslims in Cambodia prayed for Iraqi civilians, while Christian and Islamic clerics in the Philippines marched against the war.

Indonesia, the world's biggest Islamic nation, lobbied for a U.N. condemnation of the U.S.-led strike on Iraq and India reportedly indicated it had denied American requests for support.

But in South Korea, a traditional U.S. ally, anti-war protesters scuffled with police in front of the National Assembly as lawmakers postponed a vote for a second time on a bill to authorize the dispatch of 700 non-combat military personnel to the Gulf.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, about 250 Muslims shouted anti-U.S. slogans, burned American flags and hurled stones at police, who burst tear gas shells to disperse them.

It is "outrageous" that holy shrines in Iraq "are threatened by the onslaught of coalition bombs," one Muslim cleric said.

Police used water cannons on thousands of protesters in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo as they marched toward the U.S. and British embassies to denounce the war.

The protest, organized by an opposition coalition of Marxists and socialists, started after midday Muslim prayers.

In Multan, a Pakistani city 395 miles south of Islamabad, lawyers demonstrated outside the local franchise of the U.S.-based KFC restaurant, urging that it be closed. There were also rallies in Karachi and Peshawar.

In Manila, Muslims, Christians and leftist groups marched through the street of the Philippine financial district calling for an end to the U.S.-led war on Iraq and demanding that Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo stop her support for the Americans.

Demonstrators in Tehran pelted the British Embassy with stones, breaking windows and shouting "the British Embassy must be closed!" The police fired into the air to disperse the crowd, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The United States has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since 1979 when militants stormed the American Embassy and kept its personnel hostage for more than a year.

The protests in Tehran, where tens of thousands took part, and in other cities reflected the Iranian government's ambivalence about the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. On the one hand, Iran would love to see the end of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, whom it blames for an eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s. On the other hand, Iran is loathe to see another neighbor — after Afghanistan and Pakistan — fall under American influence.

Many of the demonstrators in Cairo waved copies of the Quran, the Islamic holy book, and some held banners that read "Open the doors for Jihad," or holy war.

Protest leaders said the demonstration was approved by the Interior Ministry after the intervention of legislators from the ruling National Democratic Party and the opposition Nasserite party and Muslim Brotherhood.

The calmness of the demonstration contrasted with protests held last week when rock-throwing protesters clashed with stick-wielding police outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

After the violence, the government detained scores of political activists, including opposition members of parliament, in a crackdown criticized by local and international rights groups.

The government has attempted to temper anti-U.S. feelings by blaming the war on Saddam Hussein.