Lebanese Children March Against War
About 4,000 Lebanese children chanted "Death to America" in a protest organized Thursday by the militant Hezbollah group, which is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.
In another in the daily series of protests across the Mideast since the U.S.-British attacks on Iraq began last week, thousands of Palestinians marched in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, asking Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to attack Israel with chemical weapons.
In Bahrain, about 400 people, mostly teenagers and young men, held an anti-war sit-in outside the U.S. Embassy in Manama on Wednesday, chanting "Down, Down, U.S.A.," and "No blood for oil."
More than 100 Bahraini riot police watched the protesters, who also burned a British flag.
The Web page of Spain's ruling party collapsed Thursday under a flood of e-mails protesting the government's support for the war in Iraq.
The Popular Party's Web site (www.pp.es) received more than 100,000 e-mails virtually at once, said Juan Manuel Moreno, the party's director for new technology.
The anti-war Web site (www.noalaguerra.com) had urged readers all week to bombard the party's site Thursday, Moreno said. He added that the party had rejigged the site to prepare for the anticipated onslaught, but it wasn't enough.
"This is an attack on the freedom of expression of a democratically elected party," Moreno said.
There was also a non-virtual protest: Actors from Spain's Barcelona Theater formed a human chain that collapsed domino-style to symbolize the death of Iraqis after the impact of a missile.
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar is a staunch supporter of the United States in its campaign to oust Saddam Hussein, but many Spaniards are vehemently against the war.
Anti-war protesters in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, have been burning U.S. flags and blocking entrances to American fast food restaurants.
But so far the reaction in Indonesia has been surprisingly muted — with street demonstrations far smaller than those after the U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan in 2001 — and a fierce anti-war groundswell appears unlikely.
The children marching in Beirut Thursday were between six and 10 years old. Waving Hezbollah and Palestinian flags, they shouted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" as they called for a halt to the U.S.-British attacks on Iraq.
A model of a U.S. missile carried by the children read, "Bush's gift to Iraqi children."
"Today's march is a show of support from Lebanon's children to children in Iraq and Palestine against American terrorism," Hezbollah media chief Sheik Hassan Ezzedine told The Associated Press.
He said they delivered a letter to the U.N. House in downtown Beirut addressed to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, which demanded the protection of Iraqi children and the halting of the "American aggression" against Iraq.
Demonstrations were held across Lebanon.
In the eastern Lebanese village of Khiara, one banner held by the 6,000 students praised Germany and France for their strong opposition to a war against Iraq. "Greetings to the Arab republic of France, and to the Arab kingdom of Germany," it read.
About 2,000 Lebanese students marched from their school in Sidon to the southern city's main square, where legislator Osama Saad praised the Iraqi people's "heroic resistance" and called for a boycott of American and British products.
"The American-British invasion will fail in Iraq like the Zionists failed in their occupation of Lebanese territory," he said, referring to Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation.
Meanwhile, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, in a statement published Thursday, criticized attacks against embassies and foreign cultural and diplomatic missions during anti-war demonstrations, saying such acts do not serve the objectives of protests.
In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinians marched through the streets, holding posters of Saddam and waving Iraqi and Palestinian flags. They stomped over Israeli and U.S. flags placed on the ground.
"All of us believe that this is a time that America should be defeated and only he is capable of doing that and bringing back the hope and joy of thousands of families who are victims of Israeli and American terror," said one marcher, Fatima Mukhtar, 55, who wore a headband with the inscription "We Love Saddam."
A senior Palestinian Liberation Organization official, Farouk Kaddoumi, told reporters in Damascus, Syria, that the battle for Iraq was the battle for Arab national security.
"Everything depends on us," he said. "An Iraqi victory is a must and would save the region from American plans."
About 10,000 Bahrainis, led by turbaned Muslim clerics, marched through the diplomatic district of Manama chanting "Down! Down! USA!" and carrying black flags in a gesture of mourning for Iraqi casualties. They also burned U.S. flags and an effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush.
The gulf island of Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet.
Thousands turned out for demonstrations organized in Egypt, Yemen and Jordan as well.