Newly appointed Opposition Leader Abdul Hadi Awang (pix) slammed US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for launching a military strike against Iraq to oust its president Saddam Hussein who they said threatened international security.

Abdul Hadi, who is PAS acting president and Terengganu menteri besar, said the strike was against the principles of international justice.

A dozen US and British warplanes, accompanied by scores of auxiliary aircraft, bombed "an air defence command and control facility at a military airfield 380km west and slightly south of Baghdad", according to US military, in response to "recent Iraqi hostile acts".

No justification

The PAS leader lauded the courage of several European countries which opposed the US call to war against Iraq, adding that such an attack would not help to counter terrorism.

"Using violence against violence [is] a wrong and unfair attitude," said Abdul Hadi when approached by reporters at the Parliament lobby today.

The Marang member of parliament also said that, America cannot clearly prove the wrongdoings of the Iraq government and nothing that has been said so far can justify war on the Muslim country.

"The victims are mainly the people of Iraq," he said.

Abdul Hadi also urged the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to be more proactive instead of merely being a bystander.

"With all the economic resources these countries have, if we unite, we do not have to cave in to the pressure [to support the war] imposed by the US," he said.

His view is in agreement with that of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad who on Saturday criticised the US-British air raids on Iraq and said he would voice his objection to members of the OIC.

Satellite photos

Yesterday at the so-called war council in Camp David, Bush and Blair declared that they have sufficient evidence of Iraq's development of nuclear weapons to take action on the country.

Both pointed to an International Atomic Energy Agency report released on Friday that said satellite photos of Iraq had identified new construction at several sites linked in the past to Baghdad's development of nuclear weapons.

They also cited a 1998 report from the same Vienna-based United Nations regulatory arm that said Saddam could be six months away from developing nuclear weapons.