Violent anti-American demonstrations have erupted in several Arab countries.
The biggest were in Lebanon where 20 people including five policemen were
hurt when police fired warning shots as about 200 protesters who broke away
from a demonstration in Tripoli tried to ransack an American fast food store.
In the capital Beirut 4,000 schoolchildren marched on the offices of the
United Nations and 1,000 police blocked the way to the British embassy,
which was attacked with petrol bombs during a demonstration on Tuesday.
In Balbek 5,000 children gathered in the centre of the city shouting
anti-American slogans and demanding a boycott of US goods.
A Spanish naval base has received its first seven wounded US servicemen and
hospital facilities are being rapidly expanded to treat casualties from the
war in Iraq.
The seven US troops, a mix of Marines and Army personnel, flew from Kuwait
to Naval Station Rota, a base on the southern coast of Spain which the
United States is using under a bilateral agreement.
US Navy captain Pat Kelly says most injuries are from shrapnel.
Reporters were given rare access to the base, home to 3,000 US military
personnel.
The casualties from Iraq are among the first patients to be treated at a
116-bed, "rapid-assembly" hospital which opened at Rota on February 24, US
and Spanish military spokesmen said.
Construction of a second, 250-bed hospital began this week and the US
military says it can be expanded to 500 beds if necessary.
In Germany, the Landstuhl Medical Facility near the US Ramstein air base
has increased staffing levels and is currently treating 21 casualties from
Iraq.
But officials there would not say if capacity was being expanded.
