Violent anti-American videos on al-Manar

BERIUT, Lebanon, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Each night, about 10 million people tune into al-Manar television, a satellite channel that criticizes U.S. troops in Iraq and Israeli forces.

The Washington Times reported Saturday one video telecast by the Beirut, Lebanon,-based 24-hour al-Manar shows footage of gory corpses of U.S. soldiers and ends with a suicide bomber's belt exploding, all set to the lyrics: "Down with the mother of terrorism. American threatens in vain, an occupying army of invaders. Nothing remains but rifles and suicide bombers."

"We've always been deeply troubled by al-Manar's programming and content, its anti-Semitic bias, incitement to violence, including support for insurrection in Iraq and terrorist actions against both the U.S. and Israel," said State Department spokesman Gregg Sullivan.

Al-Manar, or The Beacon, said it never called for suicide attacks against Americans.

"We never called for suicide bombings against the U.S. forces," one al-Manar editor, who spoke with the Times on condition of anonymity. "What was really said, by the secretary-general of Hezbollah, is what did the Americans expect? Did they think Iraqis would be receiving them with roses and flowers? Of course there would be suicide bombings."