Palestinians Protest Saddam Verdict

Schoolgirls marched and shopkeepers closed down their stores in Jenin on Monday in protest at the death sentence handed down against Saddam Hussein by a Baghdad court which found him guilty of crimes against humanity.

Carrying pictures of Saddam, about 250 girls from seven to 13 years old paraded through the town's refugee camp, chanting "Beloved Saddam, strike Tel Aviv," the same slogan shouted by jubilant Palestinians when Iraqi rockets slammed into Israel during the 1991 Gulf War - before the marchers were born.

Under Saddam's rule Iraq donated $25,000 per household for Jenin residents to rebuild homes destroyed in a 2002 Israeli military offensive there.