Two killed as Arab anger grows

Two people were shot dead in Yemen yesterday as anti-war protesters staged the biggest demonstrations yet across the Arab world.

A child aged 11 was killed as police clashed with 30,000 protesters in Saana, the capital, yesterday. A policeman was killed by a shot apparently fired from the crowd.

The demonstrators, chanting "Death to America and Israel" and "No British embassy here", had been trying to storm the US embassy.

The second day of demonstrations in capitals across the Arab world were much bigger than the previous day, swollen by crowds leaving midday prayers. There were also pro-Saddam demonstrations by Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, in spite of an acceptance by senior Palestinians that similar displays of support during the last Gulf war had done their cause much damage in Washington and elsewhere in the west.

Over the last 12 years, during the last Gulf war, the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Afghanistan and the present war, there have been repeated predictions that conflict would result in an explosion in the "Arab street". But this has failed to materialise.

In spite of the violence yesterday and on Thursday, Arab governments, always fearful that public unrest could undermine their own power, will consider the level of violence in their capitals so far as containable. In Yemen, where an American and a Canadian were murdered this week, scores of soldiers in armoured cars were called to quell a riot that broke out after midday prayers. Police defended the empty US compound, using tear gas and water cannon and firing live ammunition into the air.

In Cairo, there were again clashes between demonstrators and police. About 10,000 chanted anti-US slogans after weekly prayers. Police responded with water cannon after facing a volley of stones.

Demonstrators were chased through the city centre by policemen. The protesters set a fire engine ablaze.

The Egyptian interior ministry issued a statement saying it fully appreciated the emotions surrounding "regrettable developments" in the region, but would not permit unauthorised demonstrations. In his sermon in Cairo, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar and the Muslim world's top Sunni cleric, called for jihad, or holy war, to support the Iraqi people, but avoided any reference to the US or the Iraqi government.

"Jihad in Islam is meant to defend the religion, money, soul and freedom and to support those who were subject to injustice," he said. "Islam supports defending the righteous path, and we have to support and defend the people of Iraq."

Arab foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in Cairo on Monday.

At least 10 people were injured in Bahrain, regional base for the US navy's 5th Fleet, after police used rubber bullets, tear gas and truncheons to hold off about 2,000 protesters, who threw stones and set tyres ablaze as they marched on the US embassy.

In Jordan, 4,000 marched with clenched fists through the capital, Amman, to protest the presence of hundreds of US troops in the country.

In Beirut, about 500 Lebanese and Palestinians chanted slogans against America, Israel and some Arab leaders in front of the US embassy. Three policemen and two demonstrators were injured.

Thousands of Palestinians marched in refugee camps in Lebanon carrying posters of Saddam Hussein.

About 500 Palestinians in Syria marched through the al-Yarmouk refugee camp outside Damascus, Syria.

Iranian leaders also criticised the war, describing it as satanic and a "threat to humanity", in statements marking the first day of the Iranian new year. "This is the unmasked face of America," said Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, quoted by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.