Muslim protests came as US planes dropped some of their biggest bombs yet on the Iraqi capital, blowing huge craters in Baghdad’s cityscape with bombs known as “bunker-busters”. The bombs are designed to burrow into the ground before detonating between 4,400-4,700 pounds of explosive. At least two were dropped during strikes on targets that included communications centers, according to information provided by the coalition. Iraqi authorities said the overnight strikes killed seven Baghdad residents and injured 92.

Tens of thousands of Iranians chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Saddam” in Tehran yesterday in the first major anti-war rally to be held in Iran since US-led forces began their attack on Iraq. Anti-war sentiment had previously been muted in the Islamic Republic. Few Iranians have much sympathy for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who ordered the use of chemical weapons against Iranian troops in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War.

But yesterday’s state-organized demonstration emphasized Iran’s opposition to the attack on its western neighbor, without offering any support for Saddam. Iran has vowed to remain neutral in the conflict.

Some 15,000 Egyptians marched in Cairo yesterday behind a huge Iraqi flag in protest against the invasion of Iraq, in the first demonstration authorized in Cairo’s streets. The march followed the Friday prayer in Al-Azhar Mosque, one of the most cherished in the Islamic world, heeding a call from President Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party and opposition groups including the Muslim Brotherhood and the leftist Tagammo party.

“Jihad, Jihad,” shouted a group assembled around Muslim Brotherhood leader Maamoun Al-Hodeiby. “No to war,” “Stop the war,” read banners in English, while many protesters held copies of the Qur’an. It was the first demonstration authorized to march through the streets of Cairo since the Iraqi crisis re-emerged last summer. It flowed with no incident and police presence was relatively light.

However, hundreds of anti-riot troops were deployed in Cairo’s central Tahreer Square, protecting the nearby US Embassy, although the demonstration was in another part of town. The prayer sermon broadcast on Egyptian television yesterday implicitly called on Muslims to stand by Iraq and not to help the US/UK forces.

Thousands of Jordanians protested in the flash point southern Islamist stronghold of Maan after Friday prayers during which preachers called for a jihad against Americans, witnesses said. Another eyewitness said some 10,000 residents took part in the Maan protests after clerics across town called on Muslims “to launch a jihad against Americans wherever they are” in their weekly sermons.

More than 30,000 Palestinians protested against the war on Iraq in demonstrations around the Gaza Strip and West Bank after the prayers, AFP correspondents reported. The largest protest took place in the Nasser district of Gaza City where more than 20,000 responded to calls, notably from the Islamic group Hamas, for Palestinians to rally in support of Iraq.

In the West Bank, a crowd of more than 5,000 marched in Nablus carrying portraits of Saddam and the red-white-black Iraqi colors. They burned effigies of US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Thousands more gathered after prayers in the mosque at separate rallies in Ramallah, north of Jerusalem, and in Halhul, near the town of Hebron, many condemning Arab states for their lack of support for Baghdad.

And thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims took to the streets of the capital Dhaka after Friday prayers, witnesses said. More than 5,000 activists from the Islamic Oikkya Jote, a small partner of the ruling alliance headed by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, marched through the streets shouting slogans against the war, Bush and Blair.

Europe was gearing up yesterday for another weekend of protests against the war in Iraq as public fears mounted that US-British forces could become embroiled in a bloody and prolonged conflict with dangerous consequences for global security. As public concern mounts, tens of thousands of people were expected to turn out at a protest in the center of Berlin today, while a march was planned in Paris to start in front of the US Embassy. Demonstrations were also expected today in several European cities.