GAZA CITY, Gaza, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- The spiritual leader of the Islamist resistance movement Hamas Friday called on Muslims and Arabs to attack Western targets and interests around the world if the United States attacks Iraq.
Speaking at a pro-Iraqi demonstration at a Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza strip, Hamas founder Sheik Ahmad Yassin said, "The strike on Iraq would be the continuation of the Crusaders' aggression and war, therefore Muslims will have to threaten and strike Western interests, and hit them everywhere."
Yassin, reading an open letter at the Jabalya camp, said Westerners, "are fighting us, and we have to fight them. They threaten our interests; we have to threaten their interests."
The Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Abdul Aziz Rantisi, told United Press International that Muslims and Arabs around the world were being urged to attack American interests and targets only if the United States attacks Iraq.
Rantisi also said Arab countries must not help the United States in its strike on Iraq.
In a previous rally to support Iraq, Hamas leaders called upon the Iraqi people to recruit 10,000 Iraqi suicide bombers and blow themselves up as soon as the U.S. army enters Iraqi cities.
Thursday Hamas leaders declared the movement was ready to takeover the leadership of the Palestinians from Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.
Hamas opposes the resumption of the Arab-Israeli peace process and is responsible for dozens of suicide bombings of Israelis.
Arafat's Fatah movement leaders in Gaza did not sign the Hamas letter and made no comment on it. However, they said any U.S. strike on Iraq would lead to more violence in the Middle East and would bring dramatic changes to the region.
