Agence France Presse

CAIRO, 3 March 2004 — World leaders voiced outrage at the terrorist attacks.

“We condemn these brutal terrorist attacks in the strongest terms,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in Washington, adding that it was too early to say who was behind the series of blasts.

At United Nations headquarters, Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the bombings in Iraq and Pakistan, calling them the work of terrorists.

The attacks were condemned as terrorist acts by the Arab League and Iraq’s neighbors.

“The Arab League received with shock and sadness news of the explosions,” a league spokesman said. League Secretary-General Amr Moussa “forcefully condemns these criminal explosions aimed at killing and terrorizing innocent civilians,” he said in a statement. “These are barbarous acts which did not take into account the holy character of Ashoura,” the statement said of the coordinated attacks.

In the statement, Moussa urged Iraqis to stay united “in order not to leave open the chance for those who want to tear apart Iraqi unity.”

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the perpetrators aimed “to prevent Iraq fulfilling its proper destiny.” Speaking to reporters in London alongside Jordan’s King Abdallah, Blair said the blasts were staged by “terrorists” bent on causing “the maximum amount of dissent, division and hatred.”

King Abdallah shared Blair’s outrage, saying: “We are shocked, dismayed at the heinous crime that was committed today in Iraq.”