Feature: Angry, Uneasy Iraqis Eye US Attacks on Afghanistan

"I'm very angry at the news that the United States launched aggression against Afghanistan, because this is not only an aggression against Afghans, but also against all Muslims," said Qussay Abdul Ellah, a money exchange dealer in the Iraqi capital.

As to the claim by U.S. President George W. Bush that the attacks were against terrorism rather than Islam, Ellah said:" That is what he has to say to win the international opinion."

Ellah was echoed by Haider Saad, owner of a computer service shop in Baghdad.

"I am angry and sad. These are not only military strikes against Afghanistan, but also against the whole Muslim world," he said.

The real motive of the U.S. attacks against Afghanistan, according to Saad, is that the Taliban regime is a Muslim power that rejects U.S. subjugation.

Similarly, "Iraq, Sudan, Somalia and other countries which do not bow to U.S. submission could become targets of future U.S. attacks," Saad said, noting that Iraq has been the only country confronting the U.S. in the Mideast.

"We Iraqis are not afraid of any fresh U.S. military attacks as it has bombed us many times," Saad said.

"We are afraid of nobody but God," Ellah said.

Even Ula Sabri, a third-year student at the Baghdad University, said she was "psychologically ready" to face new U.S. attacks.

However, an Iraqi government employee, who declined to be identified, struck a worrying note.

"I am worried that in the wake of possible U.S. raids, there will be no supply of electricity, water and food and life will be very difficult for us," he said.

An equally anxious taxi driver, who just called him Ahmed, feared his means of livelihood would be badly affected if any war broke out.

Ahmed said that he, like any other Iraqis, had kept an eye on the latest news of the U.S. attacks, which might once again spread to their once-affluent but now dilapidated country.

Iraq has been under sweeping United Nations sanctions since it invaded neighboring Kuwait in August 1990.

The U.S. has disclosed that it may launch military strikes on other countries and groups beyond Afghanistan and the Al-Qaeda network of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect of the terror attacks in New York and Washington on September 11.

"We may find that our self-defense requires further actions with respect to other organizations and other states," John Negroponte, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said in a letter to the U.N. Security Council on Monday.

Moreover, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has hinted that the U.S. might eventually target Iraq as part of its anti-terror campaign.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who has survived the Iraq-Iran war from 1980-1988, the 1991 Gulf War, 11-year-old U.N. sanctions and repeated U.S. military strikes, has warned that Iraq could be the next U.S. target.

In a statement shortly after the U.S. and Britain started Sunday's air raids on Afghanistan, Saddam said the U.S. "might increase the use of force and spread aggression to other countries."

Iraqi Minister of Culture Hamed Yussef Humadi told Xinhua late September that it was "quite possible" for the U.S. to attack Iraq again, as the U.S. has been committing attacks against Iraq for the past 11 years.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri Ahmed warned on Tuesday that the U.S. was trying to "settle old scores" with Iraq under the pretext of terrorism.

"Should the U.S. and its ally Britain wish to expand the range of the aggression on Iraq under the pretext of terrorism, that means they want to settle old accounts with Iraq," the Iraqi foreign minister said.

Nonetheless, Iraq vowed to defend itself by all means.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said on October 3 that Iraq would resist any U.S.-led strikes in retaliation for the terrorist attacks in the U.S. one month ago.

"If America is preparing another attack under a new pretext, we will face it as we have done in the past," Aziz said.

"But why should the U.S. attack us? Where is the evidence? We did not do anything," said an Iraqi Arab Baath Socialist Party official, who refused to be named, in an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday.

"Do not forget, they (the U.S.) even did not show clear and convincing evidence (of Osama Bin Laden) to most countries in the world," he said.

Senior U.S. officials, including Powell and U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, have acknowledged that so far they found no link between Iraq and the September 11 terror attacks which left thousands of people killed or missing.

However, they stressed that once such evidences were uncovered, the U.S. would not hesitate to retaliate against Iraq, one of the " state sponsors of terrorism" designated by Washington.

Consequently, anger, hatred and uneasiness are now stalking through Iraq, a country that has been subjected to repeated bombardments by the U.S. and British forces and crippling international sanctions for more than a decade.

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