Arabs protest killing, denounce U.S. and Israel

BEIRUT, Lebanon - As the funeral procession of assassinated Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi wound through Gaza on Sunday, a cleric in Lebanon said Muslims should "take to the streets" to protest his death.

They needed little urging.

Arabs burned Israeli and American flags and called for vengeance from refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon and on university campuses in Egypt and Kuwait.

Meanwhile, France, Greece, Iran, Japan and Turkey were among governments that condemned Israel's killing of Rantisi in a missile strike less than a month after a similar attack killed his predecessor, Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin.

Israel called Yassin and Rantisi terrorists dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state; Arabs on Sunday said Hamas fought for Palestinian rights.

China and Russia expressed concern that Rantisi's death would escalate Mideast tension, as did Sweden's Prime Minister Goeran Persson.

"I can understand that Israel is criticizing Hamas and attacking Hamas, but we can never accept these executions. They are extrajudicial actions, illegal and disgusting," Persson said.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw condemned the killing as "unlawful, unjustified and counterproductive."

In Lebanon, Grand Ayatollah Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the spiritual leader of Lebanon's 1.2-million Shiites, said: "Bush and his administration were the No. 1 killer of Rantisi. The second is Arab and Muslim silence, and the third (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon and his government, who got the green light during his latest visit to Washington."

Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, denied that Bush gave Sharon the go-ahead for the Rantisi killing during their White House meeting last week.

She said on ABC-TV that Israel has the right to defend itself, but that it is "extremely important that Israel take into consideration the consequences of anything that it does."

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