Arab Protesters Demonstrate Their Anger Over U.S. Airstrikes

Angry Syrian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urged an immediate halt to the bombing of Iraq, as rage in the Arab world over the American-led military strikes grew Saturday.

Demonstrators also protested in Jordan, Egypt, Sudan and Yemen. In the Palestinian-ruled areas of the West Bank, more than 100 people were injured in pitched clashes with Israeli troops.

The violence surged even as President Clinton took his case to Arab states. In a videotaped message, he professed his “profound admiration for Islam” and said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein deserves punishment because he is a “leader who threatens Muslims and non-Muslims alike.” Later Saturday, Clinton halted the strikes, saying the military mission had been accomplished.

In Damascus, hundreds of stone-throwing students attacked the U.S. Embassy, where several scaled the wall and tore down and burned the American flag. They burst inside the ambassador’s residence and trashed it, ripping apart books and furniture and breaking into an embassy vehicle before U.S. Marine guards fired tear gas to disperse the mobs.

Syrian television aired footage of the residence’s damaged living room, with the commentary, “This is the righteous anger of the Arab world,” according to a senior U.S. official in Washington.

Syrian security guards armed with submachine guns rescued the wife of U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, Christine, who was not harmed, according to news reports from Damascus. The pair were posted in Beirut when a U.S. Marine barracks there was bombed in 1983.

Crowds also attacked the British Embassy, American and British cultural missions and the American School, while tens of thousands of Syrians chanting “Down with America!” marched through downtown Damascus to protest the U.S.-British aerial campaign against Iraq.

No Americans or other Westerners were reported injured.

Public demonstrations are rare in Syria, and Saturday’s six-hour rampage through Damascus’ upscale Al Rawdha neighborhood was by far the worst rioting in the Syrian capital in years.

The U.S. State Department protested “in the strongest possible terms” to the Syrian government, which has voiced support for Baghdad despite years of friendship with Iraq’s enemy Iran.

The government of Syrian President Hafez Assad said it had supported the demonstration but admitted that it got out of control, the senior U.S. official said. The regime exercises tight control over everything that happens in Damascus, and a large march filmed for television would have needed official sanction.

“The U.S. government holds the government in Syria fully responsible for protecting our people and our facilities,” the State Department said in Washington. “We are deeply concerned about their failure to provide adequate security in accordance with [their] international legal obligations.”

Fury over the bombing, which continued for the fourth and final night Saturday, spread throughout the Middle East and in some cases challenged national leaders to respond more forcefully to what is seen as naked American aggression.

“Arab rulers, where are you?” hundreds of Jordanian students shouted as they rallied inside the main state university campus in Amman. Jordanian anti-riot police with tear gas and plastic batons prevented the students from marching beyond the campus.

Jordan, a close military ally of the United States, has maintained tight nationwide security since the airstrikes began.

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat also has tried to quiet the growing waves of protest by issuing a ban on demonstrations, but to no avail: On Saturday, about 3,000 Palestinians marched through the West Bank city of Hebron, crying, “Death to Israel, death to America!” and waving pictures of Hussein.

Several hundred people broke away and took on Israeli troops, pelting them with rocks and gasoline bombs. The soldiers opened fire with rubber-coated steel bullets. More than 100 Palestinians were hurt.

Hebron is the site of several Jewish settlements and frequent clashes.

Egypt’s Mubarak also faced criticism from his people. Demonstrators in Cairo on Saturday accused their leaders of “betrayal and humiliation” for failing to protest Washington’s actions.

“Cowardly Arab governments, silence is betrayal!” chanted a group of about 300 leftists, union members and opposition politicians. Flag-burning rallies were also reported at two universities in and around Cairo.

Mubarak, a traditional ally of the United States, issued his most forcefully worded message to Clinton, urging that the attacks “halt immediately” before regional stability deteriorates.

In the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, where U.S. forces bombed a pharmaceuticals plant last summer, protesters threw gasoline bombs at the closed U.S. Embassy.

An editorial in Friday’s daily Al Khalij of the United Arab Emirates demanded that Arab leaders take a stronger stand against Operation Desert Fox. “To let it pass without taking a stand would mean that the Arabs have become the punching bag of America’s empire,” the editorial said.

Meanwhile, other parts of the world saw anti-U.S. demonstrations, mostly in Iraqi immigrant communities. Hundreds rallied in Indonesia, Austria, Denmark and Bulgaria. The protest in Denmark involved 250 Iraqis outside a well-guarded U.S. Embassy. Among the signs being waved: “Clinton Keep On Making Love Not War.”

Wilkinson reported from Jerusalem and Miller from Amman. Times staff writer Robin Wright in Washington contributed to this report.