1998: Muslims, Yeltsin denounce attack

Muslims, Yeltsin denounce attack

Remains of pharmaceutical plant in Sudan

Allies express support

August 21, 1998
Web posted at: 9:57 a.m. EDT (1357 GMT)

(CNN) -- International reaction to U.S. attacks on alleged terrorist targets in Sudan and Afghanistan included outrage from Muslim countries and Russian President Boris Yeltsin , while traditional U.S. allies offered support.

President Clinton described the attacks he ordered on Thursday as acts of self-defense against imminent terrorist plots and retaliation for the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania two weeks ago.

Cruise missiles hit six sites in Afghanistan that allegedly housed supporters of purported terrorist Osama bin Laden. Missiles also struck a pharmaceutical plant in the Sudeanese capital of Khartoum that the U.S. believes housed chemical weapons.

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Sudan

Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir warned that his country "reserves the right to respond to the American attack using all necessary measures," Egypt's Middle East News Agency reported Friday.

Protesters chant in front of the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum

He denied an earlier report that Sudan was recalling its diplomats from Washington.

El-Bashir said he would call for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the U.S. attack and asked the United Nations to send a delegation to Sudan to investigate whether the plant was used to produce chemical weapons.

"We will retain the right to protest, and will ask the Security Council to investigate the truth ... about this factory," el-Bashir said on Sudanese television.

Civilians in trucks heading toward the plant chanted "Down USA" in English. Many said they were shocked that the United States struck a factory in the heart of the capital. "Are these people crazy? Do you think this is really a weapons factory?" said a young woman who worked at the factory.

Earlier Friday, Sudanese demonstrators stormed the empty U.S. Embassy compound in Khartoum and pulled down the American flag to protest the attack. U.S. diplomats pulled out of Sudan in 1996.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement denied charges it provides a safe haven for Osama bin Laden and insisted that the U.S. attack killed only innocent civilians.

"I assure you that he (Osama) is still alive," Taliban spokesman Abdul Hai Mutamaen said Thursday.

Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar told a Pakistan-based Afghan news agency that his movement had already shut down bin Laden's operations and that the U.S. attack was actually aimed at the Afghan people.

The Taliban, a purist Islamic movement, control 90 percent of Afghanistan's territory, but have been recognized only by the neighboring Pakistani government.

"This attack is not against Osama, but it is a demonstration of enmity for the Afghan people," Omar said. "There is no camp of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. We have already closed his camps."

Worldwide reaction

In other areas of the world, reaction was mixed.

U.N. Secretary-General Koffi Annan, on vacation in West Africa, said he was informed by Washington of the attacks minutes before the strikes occurrml. A spokesman for Annan said the secretary-general was "concerned over these developments and awaits further details." Russian President Boris Yeltsin condemned the U.S. action. Washington "should have carried out nego|iations to the end, including in them all countries that might be involved there. That wasn't done," he said on arrival Friday in the far northern Russian city of Murmansk. RELATED VIDEO In Europe, allies support U.S. Matthew Chance reports. Windows Media 28K 56K "I didn't know that this strike would be carried out. It turns out the whole world didn't know it. That is even more dishonorable," Yeltsin said. But his press secretary, Sergei Yaztrzhembsky, toned down those remarks. "Russia and the United States are in the same boat in everything that concerns the fight against world terrorism," he said. There was no official reaction from Kenya, where FBI agents and Kenyan authorities are conducting a joint probe into the U.S. Embassy bombing in Nairobi. Kenyan media reacted indifferently to the U.S. strikes. "The bombing of the U.S. embassies was aimed at Americans ... America is hitting back," said an editor at The Nation, the newspaper with the largest circulation in east Africa. "What they do is up to them ... we can't say good or bad." China issued a cautious reaction that neither supported nor condemned the attacks. A Foreign Ministry statement said the response to U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa should be handled according to the U.N. charter and international law. It did not make clear whether Beijing believed the United States had acted within international law. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, was indirectly critical. A statement by the Foreign Ministry did not even mention the United States. "Indonesia strongly condemns any form of terrorism, although in the fight against terrorism Indonesia can not condone intervention or aggression toward sovereign nations," the ministry said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he "welcomes the U.S. decision to strike targets of terrorists in Sudan and Afghanistan." Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Zalman Shoval said: "Israel salutes the United States, which has proven once again that it will fight the scourge of terrorism which, as last week's bombings in east Africa have shown, endanger the entire free world." Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi telephoned the Sudanese president and expressed his country's support for Sudan's efforts "in the fight against this aggression," Libyan state television reported. Gadhafi also led an anti-U.S. rally in Tripoli, Libya's capital. Iraqi state television said Iraq was "ready to cooperate with any Arab and international countries to confront the U.S. hostile policies." It also compared the strikes and previous U.S. actions against Iraq, saying: "The terrorist crimes practiced by the United States against the Iraqis, in particular, and the Arabs, in general, are continuing." British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he "strongly" supported the U.S. strikes and compared the bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa with the recent bomb attack in Omagh, Northern Ireland. "The atrocities this month in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Omagh have shown the pain and suffering terrorism can bring to innocent people," Blair said in a statement. Cuba's state run news agency said, "President Clinton ignored the sovereignty of Sudan and Afghanistan and launched a theatrical bombardment which overshadowed his recent sex scandal." Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the United States was entitled to respond to the East African embassy bombings. "The Americans have been subjected to a large number of indiscriminate attacks, and they have a perfect right to defend themselves," Howard said. Pakistan denounced the U.S. missile strikes on neighboring Afghanistan and on Sudan as a violation of the territorial integrity of two Islamic countries. In Islamabad, about 150 protesters chanting anti-American slogans gathered outside the U.S. Information Service center and burned a replica of the U.S. flag. Protests also were held elsewhere in the capital and in other cities after traditional Friday Muslim prayers. Pakistani officials have said repeatedly in recent days that the United States had not approached them about attacking bin Laden, and defense officials said Thursday they were taken by surprise when cruise missiles flew across Pakistani airspace to hit the Afghan sites. Answering questions in Parliament, Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said "Japan understands the United States' resolute attitude against terrorism" but he withheld his final judgment until his government gathered more information about the attacks. German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said on Friday his government supported U.S. strikes carried out on targets in Afghanistan and Sudan on Thursday, saying he condemned "every kind of terrorism." One popular Turkish newspaper was partiularly blunt in assessing Clinton's motivation for ordering the strikes. "The Monica Missiles," read a headline in popular daily Hurriyet. Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.