Iraq hails attack on US

Al-Iraq says the myth of America was destroyed

The entire world - almost - has reacted with horror to the news of Tuesday's terrorist attacks against the United States - the entire world except for Iraq.

As condolences poured in from everywhere - even from Libya and Iran - Iraq rejoiced, saying the terror attacks were a "lesson for all tyrants and oppressors" and the fruit of American crimes.

The attacks against U.S. Federal buildings were a natural reaction to American rulers' hegemony, deception, and foolishness

Al-Iraq

"America burns," read the headline of the country's official al-Iraq newspaper, which declared: "the myth of America was destroyed with the World Trade Center in New York."

Elsewhere in the Gulf, newspapers were unanimous in their condemnation of the attacks, but al-Iraq wrote: "It is the prestige, arrogance and institutions of America that burn."

The paper said it would be difficult for the US to find the perpetrators of the attack, since America has made so many enemies.

"Thousands if not a million or billion hands were behind these attacks," it said.

US leaders must expect such a lesson because they have shown insupportable cruelty towards people and that ended by blowing up in their face

Al-Iraq

But al-Iraq hailed the attackers, saying, "Whichever party committed these attacks, it has dragged the dignity of the US government into the mud and unveiled its vain arrogance."

The paper said America has only itself to blame.

"Brutal America, suffering from illusions of grandeur, has inflicted humiliation, famine and terrorism on all of the world's countries and today it reaps the fruits of its arrogant and stupid policy," said an official Iraqi statement.

Deep hatred

Most Iraqi citizens, living under a UN-imposed embargo for 11 years, have developed a deep hatred for the US.

The embargo followed the 1991 Gulf War, when a multinational coalition led by Washington drove Iraqi troops out of Kuwait after seven months of occupation.

The official statement, read on television Tuesday night, said: "the American cowboys are reaping the fruit of their crimes against humanity."

The statement said the attack was, among others, a result of America's support of Israel.

"The destruction of the centres of American power is the destruction of American policy, which has veered from human values to align itself with the Zionist world, to continue to massacre the Palestinian people."