DUBAI - Arabs were torn between seething rage at images of a U.S. soldier shooting dead a wounded Iraqi in a mosque and dismay at Iraqi insurgents in Falluja for turning holy mosques into battlegrounds.

Viewers said images, which Arab televisions aired repeatedly of a Marine killing a severely injured Iraqi, fueled growing hatred against America and helped create more "terrorists."

"I am not a jihadist, I am just a normal Muslim but such scenes are pushing me to Jihad," said Dubai-based engineer Abdallah. "We don't expect this from the representative of democracy in the world."

"This is one of the things we saw on TV. God knows how many crimes they have committed which we have not seen," he added."

In Saudi Arabia -- the birthplace of Islam and of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, whose group carried out bombings in the country -- residents said insurgents were to blame for taking their battle into mosques.

"If I was in the U.S. soldier's place I would have killed all the insurgents because they are mercenaries," said Saudi Zaher al-Saleh, a 32-year-old teacher. "They have turned the mosques into battlefields and they're killing civilians."

Islamist extremists called for revenge through their Web sites and cursed pro-U.S. Muslim leaders for remaining silent.

"Oh God your enemies have killed your believers in one of your houses. God take revenge for us," one chatter said.

PERSONAL AFFRONT

Some Muslims saw the killing as a personal affront.

"It's as if they had killed every one of us. Today, it's that poor man, tomorrow, it will be me," said Sherine Mohamed, 27, a financial analyst. "Even if militants didn't respect mosque sanctities, U.S. soldiers should have done so because they claim to help Iraqis."

Muslims said pictures showing Marines lounging with their guns in a Falluja mosque were "insulting."

They said soldiers "sullied the ground with their boots" at the mosque where Muslims are obliged to take off their shoes in respect for the house of God.

"They are entering dangerous waters. If they think they are getting rid of terrorists this way, they are mistaken. They are creating more terrorists than killing them," added Abdallah.

International human rights groups said the killing could amount to a war crime and showed the need to better train U.S. forces about the laws of war.

The U.S. military opened an investigation into whether the Marine acted in self-defense, broke U.S. military law or committed a war crime in the fatal shooting of a wounded Iraqi in Falluja, the scene of fierce fighting between U.S. forces and Iraqi and Islamist militants in the past week.

That shooting was caught on videotape by an NBC television crew embedded with the Marines.

The United Arab Emirates' Al-Ittihad newspaper said the killing was "shocking and provocative" and demanded Washington investigate the "horrifying crime."

"If this crime goes unpunished it will set a dangerous precedent in U.S. policies and will destroy everything (good) it has done for Iraq," it added.

Arab animosity toward U.S. presence in Iraq has ratcheted up since the Abu Ghraib prison scandal that resulted in the sentencing of several U.S. soldiers.

Lebanon's Shi'ite Muslim Hizbollah TV al-Manar led its newscasts with the shooting and said it showed "the ugliness of the actions that occupation forces are carrying out in Iraq."

"U.S. forces violating laws and committing atrocities is not new. What has surfaced is only a small part of what Iraqis are facing," said Shehab al-Ahdal, editor-in-chief of Yemen's al-Nahar newspaper.

© 2004 Reuters

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