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Iraq says US

planned Israeli

attack on Lebanon

BAGHDAD: Iraq blasted the United States on Sunday, saying it planned a four-day-old Israeli military campaign against pro-Iranian Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

"Let the whole world understand that the real planner for the aggression (against Lebanon) is America, particularly when (U.S. Secretary of State) Warren Christopher blamed the Lebanese national resistance (for sparking the blitz)," the government newspaper al-Jumhouriya said in a front page editorial.

Babel newspaper, owned by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday, said while Israeli warplanes and artillery were pounding Lebanon, "those who call themslves peacemakers have kept silent in order to maintain peace...peace of the dead".

"What is happening? Why all this American collaboration?... Where is the United Nations and where is the international legitimacy?" Jumhouriya asked.

"The American support for Israel's aggression...stresses that America is the enemy of the Arabs and Moslems...and that Israel is only a tool being used by the U.S. to fulfil its imperialist goals," the paper said.

Baghdad is a vehement opponent of Washington ever since a U.S.-led military coalition ended seven months of Iraqi occupation to Kuwait in 1991.-Reuter