Iranians hold placards and effigies of Uncle Sam at Iran's national day celebration in Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Square, February 11, 2002. Tens of thousands of Iranians turned out to mark the 23rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in a show of defiance against U.S. charges that Iran formed part of an "axis of evil". REUTERS/Raheb

Marchers converged on the huge Azadi (Freedom) Square in the west of Tehran to hear the traditional speech by President Mohammad Khatami marking the 23rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution, using the occasion to condemn repeated US allegations against the country.

In Afghanistan, Deputy Minister of Border Affairs Mirza Ali told AFP that according to locals in eastern Khost province, three people killed in a US missile strike there last week were poor villagers, not al-Qaeda terrorists.

"They were collecting metal -- bits of exploded bomb -- when they were attacked," Ali said. "As far as we know, and according to the locals, they were innocent."

Rallies coupled with anti-US protests were planned in towns and cities across Iran, which US President George Bush last month accused of being on an "axis of evil" with Iraq and North Korea.

Khatami condemned the "immature leaders" of the US government, telling them to "wake up" and change their "mistaken policies" or risk further terror attacks like September 11.

"Those who have carried out coups d'etats, terrorism, wars and who have imposed embargoes on you," Khatami told the crowd, referring to the United States, "are today using ridiculous pressures, but, above all, this mistaken policy will be harmful to themselves.

"The decisions of immature American leaders are making their country more and more hated by other people, and the American people are thus in conflict with other peoples."

Iran and the United States severed diplomatic relations after the revolution in 1980, and Washington says Tehran is the biggest state sponsor of "terrorism" in the world today, namely for its support of Palestinian militant groups.

Bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization has been blamed for the deaths of around 3,000 people in the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

US soldiers investigating the results of the Khost missile attack against alleged al-Qaeda leaders would analyze the DNA in human remains and other evidence at a base in northern Afghanistan, a spokesman said in Kandahar.

US media and Pentagon officials have speculated that a tall man seen among the unidentified group which was attacked by a Hellfire missile may have been bin Laden himself.

But the Washington Post on Monday quoted local villagers as saying the dead included Mir Ahmad, a man known for his height, and other civilian residents of the remote area.

Roper said reports those hit were innocent Afghans was "not consistent with our intelligence".

US senators briefed on intelligence matters said that the best indications are that bin Laden was alive.

"I believe he is alive," Senator Richard Shelby said.

"We're going to find him ... And we have the will, we have the way to find him. And we're either going to capture him or kill him. I don't believe he will surrender."

Other leading American newspapers reported that Afghan farmers were beaten during their capture and imprisonment at a US base in Kandahar after a raid on what was initially believed to be an al-Qaeda meeting.

Several of the 27 former prisoners, who were released Wednesday, said two men lost consciousness during the beatings while others suffered fractured ribs, loosened teeth and swollen noses, The Washington Post said.

Similar accounts were also published by The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

The Times of London reported that the United States was preparing to launch surveillance flights over Somalia and Yemen in the next phase of its war against terrorism.

Britain, France and Germany are set to offer support to Washington as it turns its attention to two countries which it believes are harboring al-Qaeda terrorist training camps, the daily cited military sources as saying.

No decision had been taken on the air support which the three European NATO allies will provide, the report added.

Meanwhile interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai reopened his country's embassy in the United Arab Emirates, marking a new era in relations with one of only three countries to have recognized the Taliban regime.

Karzai went into talks with Emirati President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan after delivering the keynote address at a conference hosted by an Abu Dhabi think tank.

His trip to Abu Dhabi follows similar visits to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and coincides with a visit by his defense minister, General Mohammad Qasim Fahim, to Russia to seek support in building an Afghan army.

In Pakistan, there was growing concern for the fate of kidnapped US journalist Daniel Pearl, but police declared they believed chief suspect Sheikh Omar was hiding in the eastern city of Lahore.

Senior police sources involved in the massive manhunt revealed they had spoken with Omar, the British-born Islamic extremist accused of kidnapping Pearl, by phone on February 2 and suspected he was in Lahore at the time.

"We believe he (Omar) is still in Lahore and it will be very difficult for him to slip away from the city because of the very tight security measures that are enforced ... at all exit points," a police officer said.

Copyright © 2002 AFP

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