Global Policy Forum

Thousands of Iraqis marched through Baghdad Sunday to protest against U.S. and British air raids which have drawn a chorus of international concern and angered key NATO allies.

Iraq sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan calling for United Nations condemnation of Friday's attack on the outskirts of Baghdad, which it said killed at least two civilians.

Witnesses estimated more than 10,000 took to the streets of Baghdad Sunday, chanting slogans against U.S. President George W. Bush, who ordered the strike less than a month after taking office.

Demonstrators held up pictures of President Saddam Hussein and burned U.S. and Israeli flags in the biggest protest in Baghdad since four days of Western bombing in December 1998. The demonstration was organized by the ruling Baath party.

Amid calls for revenge from Iraqi government newspapers, Saddam and his top aides Saturday discussed plans for military retaliation in the event of another attack.

``The U.N. Secretary-General and the Security Council Chairman should condemn the military aggression and should take appropriate steps to prevent such attacks from happening again,'' said a letter to Annan from Iraq's Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf.

Washington said U.S. and British planes hit Iraqi radar systems five to 20 miles from Baghdad. The attack was designed to remove a threat to planes patrolling no-fly zones set up after the 1991 Gulf War.

The patrols are to protect Shi'ite Muslims in the south and a Kurdish enclave in the north from attack by Baghdad's forces.

Iraq said Western warplanes returned Sunday to patrol the southern zone after having made a similar sortie Saturday, within hours of Friday's air strike.

The Iraqi news agency INA said Saddam met top aides on Sunday to discuss improvements to anti-aircraft defenses.

``Iraq will continue defying American and British aircraft flying in its airspace...and will confront them by all possible means,'' Iraq's Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh told reporters in Baghdad.

The U.N. office in Baghdad said it had taken limited precautions after the attack but its humanitarian program was continuing. ``We are limiting unnecessary travel by our staff,'' the U.N. spokesman in Baghdad, George Somerwill, told Reuters.

Chorus of Concern

NATO allies have joined a chorus of international concern led by Russia and China over the raids, seen as threatening Middle East stability.

France, a member of the Gulf War coalition that ended Iraq's 1990-91 occupation of Kuwait, said it wanted an explanation for the air strike. Turkey, from which U.S.-led warplanes take off to patrol the north Iraq no-fly zone, rebuked Washington for failing to inform it before the assault was launched.

A Spanish foreign affairs spokesman said Spain and other European allies had not been informed of the raid.

An Italian foreign ministry source said Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini would question Secretary of State Colin Powell about the attack when they meet in Washington this week.

The Arab League said the assault had broken international law and would stoke anger across the Arab world.

``The air raids have just complicated the situation and killed innocent people,'' Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told Italy's la Repubblica newspaper.

``I don't believe Saddam is a threat to the world. Iraq is not a superpower and it doesn't have sophisticated trans-continental missiles,'' he was quoted as saying.

Several political leaders in German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's center-left government have criticized the United States and Britain for the air raid.

One of the reported victims was an 18-year-old woman and television pictures showed a man, apparently in his 30s, who was reported to have died in the attack. The Iraqi news agency named the dead as Aliah Atshan Abdullah and Khalil Hameed Alwash.

In Gaza and the West Bank, hundreds of Palestinians marched in solidarity with Iraq to condemn the air raids. Iraq has supported their uprising against Israel and Saddam is seen as a hero by many Palestinians for standing up to the West.

Scores of Jordanians protested against the raid outside the heavily-guarded U.S. embassy in Amman.

Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Israel was following the developments in Iraq although there was no need for immediate action. Israel was hit by Iraqi Scud missiles during the Gulf War.

Iraq's Babel newspaper, commenting on the inability of Bush's father to remove Saddam during his time in the White House 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.''