Angry Iraqi Mourners Demand Revenge

An angry crowd of 10,000 Iraqis, shouting “Allahu akbar! (God is great)” and demanding revenge, joined a funeral procession Sunday for six people killed in the U.S. missile strike on Baghdad.

Mourners carried the coffins, draped in Iraqi flags, on their shoulders from Bab al Sharji in central Baghdad to Sahat Khillani, about a mile away.

Indignant demonstrators yelled “Vengeance, vengeance, Saddam!” and a few old women lining the street wept.

The crowd produced the first chant against President Clinton ever heard in the streets of Baghdad: “Clinton, pay attention; we are the people who toppled Bush.”

Bereaved relatives, dressed in black, burst into tears when reporters approached them.

U.S. missiles ripped into Iraq’s intelligence headquarters Sunday to avenge an alleged plot to kill former President George Bush, but nearby homes were also demolished. Iraqi Television said at least eight people were known dead in the attack.

Associated Press photographer Jassim Mohammed, who lives near the target site, said he awoke to the zoom of the cruise missiles early Sunday.

“It was scary,” Mohammed said. “We did not know what was going on, but everybody was rushing to take shelter.”

Some Baghdad residents even first thought the city was under attack from Iran rather than the United States.

After sunrise, rescue workers dug through the debris of buildings, looking for survivors and carrying away the dead.

One man, Mahir Hisham Salman, said that he and his family were sleeping when the Tomahawk missiles hit.

“Suddenly, our building was shaken when one missile hit a building near our building. Three were killed and four were injured in that building,” he said.