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lennart
21-03-03, 00:19
Saddam gives $210,000 to families of killed
Palestinians

By The Associated Press




As U.S. forces launched a first salvo of missiles against Iraq, Saddam Hussein distributed $210,000 Thursday to the families of Palestinians killed in fighting with Israel, and hundreds took to the streets in an anti-war rally.

About 1,500 Palestinians chanted, "No good morning , no good night ... America, all Arabs should fight." Some waved pictures of Saddam and burned American and British flags.

Throughout nearly 30 months of battles, Iraq has paid more than $35 million to the families of Palestinians killed in the conflict, including relatives of bombers and Palestinian civilians.

Via a tiny pro-Iraq faction in the West Bank and Gaza, Saddam on Thursday doled out $10,000 checks to the families of 21 Palestinians, including a member of the Hamas, an Islamic militant group that has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks and is on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist groups.

One of the leaders of the pro-Iraqi group told the families - and a crowd of hundreds of onlookers gathered in a main square of Khan Yunis, a town on Gaza's border with Egypt - that Saddam would continue to support them.

"Even in this crucial time, President Saddam has not forgotten his people in Palestine and he insists on making payments to the families of the martyrs," said Ibrahim Zaanen, of the Arab Liberation Front.

"President Saddam and the Iraqi people will be steadfast in the face of aggression and God is greater than the aggressor. Iraq will defeat the invaders," he said, speaking from a small stage.

Several men from the group popped off shots into the air from submachine guns each time Saddam's name was mentioned. Families receiving the money held pictures of Saddam and Iraqi flags.

Fourteen of the families were related to slain civilians, including youths who hurled rocks at Israeli soldiers and four cousins killed by soldiers as they tried to cross a fence into Israel in search of work.

The other seven were gunmen, including a Hamas militant who battled with an undercover unit of Israeli soldiers who came to arrest him.

The payments have made Iraq popular among many Palestinians who feel they have been abandoned by other Arab countries in their conflict with Israel. Most Palestinians oppose the U.S. offensive against Baghdad as unjustified, though many also consider Saddam to be a cruel dictator.

Abedl Aziz Shaheen, a Palestinian Cabinet minister who went to the rally on his own accord and not representing the Palestinian Authority, said the U.S.-led strike a "war is against all the Arabs and Muslims. It shows the real face of Bush."