Al-Qaeda presence in SA - expert

Cape Town - Two children dressed as suicide bombers led a pro-Palestine Quds Day march on the United States consulate in Cape Town on Friday.

Several hundred people took part in the protest, co-ordinated by the militant Muslim organisation Qibla and closely monitored by police.

At their head was a group of 11 children clad in black, carrying wooden imitations of guns, and a "bazooka".

Two of the youngsters had cardboard tubes of "explosives" strapped to chest and back.

The protesters, kept at bay at the consulate by police and razor wire, handed over a memorandum demanding that the world recognised Israel as an "illegitimate terrorist state".

The memo also condemned what it called the US "cowboy crusade" against Islam and Muslims.

March co-ordinator Abdullah Edries said Quds day, the "day of the oppressed", was marked annually on the last Friday of Ramadan.

-- Anonymous, November 29, 2002