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Arab commentators yesterday justified a wave of anti-US attacks in Iraq as acts of resistance against foreign occupation, comparing the deadly campaign to the Palestinian struggle against Israel.

Though controlled by governments allied with the US, such as those in Egypt and Jordan, Arab newspapers refer to a popularly-backed resistance against a US-led military occupation.

US authorities have dismissed the attacks as the work of "dead-enders" loyal to ousted dictator Saddam Husein or non-Iraqi Arab fighters.

"What the US administration has forgotten is that all the Iraqis, except the traitors and agents, look at the presence of US forces as an invasion, a colonisation and occupation, despite all that's being said on assistance, reconstruction and promotion of democracy," wrote Galal Dawidar, chief editor of the Egyptian government daily Al-Akhbar.

His editorial appeared after several suicide bombings against US-backed police stations and the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Baghdad on Monday killed 43 people and wounded more than 220 others.

But it was not clear whether Dawidar considered these particular bombings as acts of resistance.

On Sunday, a barrage of rockets was fired at a hotel in Baghdad where US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying, killing one US officer, the latest in a steady stream of attacks on the US authorities and troops.

The Jordanian daily Al-Arab Al-Yom said "the operation demonstrated the effectiveness of the resistance and its level of organisation".

In Beirut, Walid Jumblatt, an influential Lebanese politician and leader of its Druze community, triggered US outrage Monday when he expressed regret Wolfowitz was unhurt in the rocket attack.

"We hope the firing will be more precise and efficient (next time), so we get rid of this microbe and people like him in Washington who are spreading disorder in Arab lands, Iraq and Palestine," Jumblatt said in a statement.

Jumblatt called Wolfowitz a "friend of Ariel Sharon," the hardline Israeli prime minister, "and one of the main architects of ... the destruction of Iraq" even before the war to topple Saddam.

Dawidar also compared the situation in Iraq with that in the Palestinian territories.

In Lebanon, some newspapers made a distinction between the rocket attack on the Rashid Hotel and the wave of suicide attacks the next day that killed mostly Iraqi civilians.

The Lebanese daily As-Safir for example called the suicide attacks a "crime" as well as a "fatal political error" which could not be compared to an attack on a hotel housing "the leaders of the occupation".

Arabs also refute the US argument that the attacks are orchestrated by isolated pockets loyal to Saddam or by foreigners who are members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

"The theory that everything is tied to bin Laden does not stand up to scrutiny," according to Hasni Abidi, who heads the Geneva-based Center for Research and Study of the Arab World and the Mediterranean.

"One has to admit one is in the midst of an Iraqi resistance which, by attacking institutions like the United Nations and the Red Cross, wants to send a message: 'we are attacking all those who want to give a human face to this war," the Algerian-born Abidi said.

"It's about discouraging foreigners from coming and demonstrating that the donor conference on Iraq, which just ended in Madrid, is meaningless because it is impossible to ensure security," he added.

"The resistance groups are numerous" in Iraq, said an editorialist at Al-Ahram, Mohammed Sid Ahmed.

"It's a bit like Afghanistan at the start of the Soviet invasion, where everybody joins in the resistance, because the occupation justifies a consensus," Sid Ahmed said. – Sapa-AFP.

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