Anti-war demonstrators Thursday tried to storm an American fast-food restaurant in northern Lebanon, leading to clashes with police that left at least 10 people injured.
About 40,000 students initially marched peacefully through the northern city of Tripoli.
But as the demonstration began to break up hours later, about 200 tried to storm a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant and were blocked by police. The students threw stones and police opened up with water cannons and fired guns into the air, AP reported. Ten people suffered minor injuries in the clashes.
In Beirut, demonstrators carried pictures of American prisoners of war today. Some 5000 students marched from United Nations House to the nearby British embassy, shouting slogans against the United States, Britain and Israel.
Some 2000 people also burned an effigy of US President George W. Bush and an Israeli flag in the main square of the southern town of Jeb Jannine.
In Bahrain, some 400 people held an anti-war sit-in outside the US Embassy. The embassy was closed due to the expected demonstrations, which went off peacefully.
Up to 4000 students gathered on the campus of Cairo University, but riot police refused to allow them to march to Giza square. Professors gave short speeches surrounded by banners reading "Jihad is the answer" and chanting students who burned several American flags.
In Iran, hundreds of families of victims of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war rallied in front of the UN office in Tehran, state-run Tehran TV reported. The demonstrators denounced the US-British attack against Iraq and voiced support for the "innocent Iraqi nation".
An anti-war sit-in was held in front of the offices of the Red Cross in Damascus, the Syrian capital, by about 30 women.
Meanwhile, Syria's grand Mufti said it was the duty of all Muslims to resist the US-British forces invading Iraq. "All Muslims have to use all possible means of defeating the enemy, including martyrdom operations against the invading warriors," Sheikh Ahmad Kiftaro said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
