Egyptian Students Protest US Strike Against BaghdadThousands of Egyptian students in Cairo-based universities Sunday afternoon staged campus protest against US-British air strike against Iraq Friday night.In the Islamic Al-Azhar University and the Ain Shams University, sudents held gatherings on their campus respectively and shouted anti-USand -British slogans to protest against the bombings, which have left two Iraqi civilians dead and at least 20 others injured. But they were forbidden to move out of their campus. Since Egypt put into effect a state of emergency 33 years ago, street demonstrations have been limited in the country. The Egyptian government has repeatedly slammed US-British raids against Iraq. Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa criticized the strike as "sudden and unacceptable" on Sunday. Speaker of the Egypt's Parliament Ahmed Fathi Sorour Saturday condemned, in the name of all lawmakers, the US-British air strike "an aggression against the Iraqi people." According to the Pentagon, 24 US and British warplanes struck five Iraqi military targets, eight to 32 kilometers from the Iraqi capital Baghdad, using various long-range precision-guided weapons. The attack, dubbed by the US a "routine mission," was the first on the Iraqi capital since December 1998, when the US and Britain launched a four-day bombardment against Iraq for its alleged refusal to cooperate with UN arms inspectors. This was also the first air strike against Iraq ordered by US President George W. Bush. |
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