Anti-U.S. Protests Draw Thousands

Burning an effigy of George W. Bush and denouncing both America and Pakistan's leader, thousands marched in cities across this mainly Islamic nation on Friday against a potential U.S.-led war against Iraq.

The demonstrations were called by hard-line Islamic leaders who won unprecedented support in recent nationwide elections. There were no reports of violence and the numbers of protesters were not especially high in this country of 145 million people.

Extra troops were deployed near the U.S. Embassy in the capital and at other sensitive sites. However, no violence was reported.

Some 1,500 people in the central city of Multan burned an effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush and criticized Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for supporting the U.S. war on terror in neighboring Afghanistan.

About 7,000 people demonstrated in the western city of Peshawar, chanting "Down with America," and "Long Live Saddam Hussein."

In Islamabad, about 400 people rallied outside the Red Mosque, watched by riot police.

"The U.S. has started a war against Muslims," cleric Samiul Haq said. "This is a war between the friends of Allah and the friends of Satan."

Protest organizers called on shop owners to close in sympathy, but many stayed open. In the eastern city of Lahore, some said they had shut in fear of violence.

Supporters say the marches are just a taste of the anger that an attack on Saddam Hussein's regime would cause in Pakistan, a conservative Muslim country that's now a crucial U.S. ally.

"If today we cannot stop America from attacking Iraq, then tomorrow they will attack Iran, and then it could be Pakistan," said Fazl-ur Rahman, a leader within the Islamist Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal coalition.

Westerners and Pakistani Christians have been targeted in the year since Musharraf sided with the United States in the war on terror. Some fear the anger will intensify if America wages war on another Muslim country.

The U.S. Embassy said it was not unduly concerned.

"We're watching events closely," said spokesman Terry White. "But it's not accurate to say we're behind-the-barricades afraid."

Most Western embassies in Pakistan are already operating at emergency levels, with families evacuated after a grenade attack on a church in March that killed a U.S. Embassy employee and her 17-year-old daughter. In June, a large car bomb went off outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, killing 12 Pakistanis. A suicide bombing in that southern city in May killed 14 people, including 11 French engineers.

Interior Ministry spokesman Iftikhar Ahmad said extra police would be deployed outside the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and consulates in other cities during Friday's marches.

"Sentiments are always high when clerics hold rallies against America, but the provincial governments have prepared security plans to maintain law and order," he said.

Pakistan's government, which on Jan. 1 took over a seat on the 15-member U.N. Security Council, has been reluctant to discuss its position on Iraq. But Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali urged his countrymen not to waste their energy defending Saddam Hussein's regime.

"Give a glance back in history, and see whether Iraq helped Pakistan during its times of crisis," Jamali said last week.

Even before Friday's protests started, tensions were heightened after a weekend shootout between American and Pakistani forces along the Pakistan-Afghan border. A U.S. warplane dropped a bomb along the border after a rogue Pakistani border guard shot and wounded an American soldier.