DAR AL HARB / ISLAM - U.S.A. / HIZ B'ALLAH: IT'S ALL BUSH'S FAULT...'DEATH TO AMERICA' & 'DEATH TO ISRAEL'

Hezbollah leader Nasrallah attacks Bush

BEIRUT - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah accused US President George W. Bush on Tuesday of creating chaos in Lebanon, rejecting his charge that the militant group and its allies were causing the violence.

Sectarian clashes in Beirut last week between pro- and anti-government supporters left seven people killed, bringing back memories of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.

Addressing hundreds of thousands of Shia Lebanese gathered in Beirut’s southern suburb for the climax of the annual Ashura religious ceremony, Nasrallah challenged Bush’s latest attack against the group and said the US had ordered Israel to launch last year’s war against Hezbollah guerrillas.

On Monday, Bush accused Hezbollah and its allies Iran and Syria of stirring up the latest violence in Lebanon in a bid to topple its government and said “those responsible for creating chaos must be called to account”.

“The one who fomented chaos in Lebanon, who destroyed Lebanon, who killed women and children, old and young in Lebanon, is George Bush and (Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice who ordered the Zionists to launch the war on Lebanon,” Nasrallah said in a fiery speech.

The July-August war killed nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

“The one who must be punished, who must be tried, is the one who ordered the launching of war on Lebanon. George Bush wants to punish you because you resisted, he wants to punish you because you won,” Nasrallah said addressing a sea of black which converged on Beirut’s southern suburb to commemorate the killing in battle of the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein.

“George Bush knows ... and we reiterate to him -- and the whole world should hear --, that we are a nation that doesn’t succumb and can’t be humiliated.”

’Death to America’

Earlier, the crowd marched in Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold, rhythmically beating their chests in a sign of grief over Hussein’s martyrdom and chanting “Death to America, death to Israel”.

Some carried red, yellow and black flags with religious slogans. Others wore green headbands and chanted, “We will never be humiliated.”

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