Westerners Attacked on Streets in Jordan

Angry Jordanians took to the streets today, in some cases attacking Westerners, to protest the deaths of possibly hundreds of civilians in an allied bombing in Baghdad.

King Hussein expressed outrage at the bombing. He urged an immediate cease-fire in the month-old Persian Gulf War and an investigation of the allied air attack by the U.N. Security Council.

Elsewhere today, the civilian deaths in Baghdad brought renewed calls for peace and pleas for a reappraisal of the war.

In Arab nations in the coalition against Iraq, some newspapers today emphasized U.S. statements that the bunker was a military command center and others held Iraqi President Saddam Hussein responsible for the civilian deaths.

Other Arabs condemned the attack, saying the allied air campaign was going too far. Yemen’s U.N. ambassador, Abdalla Saleh Ashtal, called it “the cold-blooded murder of hundreds of innocent civilians.”

Tunisian President Zine Abidine Ben Ali declared today “a day of mourning in memory of the innocent civilian victims who fell in the barbaric aerial bombardment of Iraqi cities.”

Palestinians in half a dozen towns and cities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank began a three-day general strike today to mourn the Iraqi victims. Many Palestinians back Saddam Hussein, who has tried to link Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait to Israel’s withdrawal from the territories.

In Amman today, 1,000 people gathered outside the U.S. Embassy chanting “Death to America” and other anti-American slogans. They waved black flags in mourning and carried portraits of the king and Saddam Hussein.

One placard read, “Bravo U.S. for killing women and children.”

Three Western television crews were attacked this morning by Jordanians, but no one was seriously injured, police said.

Late Wednesday, a German student was beaten and stabbed by a crowd in Amman.

Also late Wednesday, about 1,000 people tried to march on the U.S. Embassy but dispersed after being stopped by police in riot gear.