SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2003
Bury US in Iraq, says Hamas leader
AP
GAZA CITY: The spiritual leader of the violent Islamic group Hamas on Friday told demonstrators carrying posters of Saddam Hussein that any American forces invading Iraq must be "buried" there.
Israel's army chief, meanwhile, said he believes US forces already assembled in the region would be sufficient for an offensive against Iraq and that such a strike could come by next month.
In Gaza City, about 1,500 Palestinians, including many Hamas supporters, marched in support of Iraq after Muslim prayers.
Marchers set fire to Israeli and US flags. A man shouted through a loudspeaker: "Oh people of Iraq, stand and be patient. Liberation is upon you. Oh people of Iraq, Hamas is coming to save you." Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the ailing, wheelchair-bound Hamas leader, told the crowd that war on Iraq is a war against all Muslims.
"America must be buried in Iraq so they can learn a lesson not to attack any Arab countries," Yassin said.
Hamas has said it is focusing on its conflict with Israel and is not interested in fighting on other fronts. Members of the group have killed hundreds of Israelis in bombings and shootings in the past 28 months of fighting.
Meanwhile, Israeli army chief Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon told the daily Yediot Ahronot that he expects US forces to strike Iraq by next month to disarm Saddam Hussein.
For months, Israelis have been preparing for the possibility that Iraq might attack Israeli cities with Scud missiles as it did in the 1991 Gulf War.
The probability of an Iraqi missile strike on Israel is low, Yaalon said. Iraq is concentrating its forces around Baghdad and not along a 50-mile swath of the country's western border that is within missile range of Israel, the army chief said.
Israeli officials have said they've received assurances they'll be given enough warning of an American strike in order to prepare defenses. For several weeks, US and Israeli soldiers have been testing Israel's air defenses in a joint drill.
Asked by Yediot if American forces are a deployed in the Gulf in numbers capable of striking Iraq, Yaalon said: "So it seems. They are capable when the command is given."
The number of American troops in the region stands at an estimated 113,000 -- nearly half in Kuwait, the main launch point for a possible US-led ground invasion.
The US military's 101st Airborne Division -- about 20,000 soldiers -- was ordered this week to deploy to spots that would likely include the Persian Gulf. Two and possibly three more aircraft carriers are likely to head toward the region in the next few days.
Yaalon said he expected "more or less" that the war would start this month or by the beginning of March.
He also said a successful campaign to oust Saddam could help ease the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He noted that in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, the first Palestinian uprising cooled and peace talks began.
"In the next few weeks there is going to be a regional earthquake here," Yaalon said. "After it, I believe there will be a new balance in the region, a new structure. A successful American offensive will ... strengthen all of the pragmatic parties in the region."
However, a senior Hamas official, Mahmoud Zahar, suggested the opposite might happen, when he said his group is well prepared to lead the Palestinian people after a future election victory. It was a rare public suggestion that Hamas wants to replace Yasser Arafat's regime.
"Hamas has an infrastructure, it has its cadres that can lead in all directions politically, financially, socially," Zahar told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday. "And with respect to an army, we can create one with all capabilities."
The Israeli government has been working to weaken Arafat, charging that he has encouraged militants to attack Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Sharon hopes that moderate Palestinians will eventually replace Arafat.
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