GAZA CITY In Washington, the U.S. State Department criticized the drawings, calling them "offensive to the beliefs of Muslims." In Iraq, thousands demonstrated after Friday mosque prayers, and the country's leading clerics denounced the drawings. About 4,500 people rallied in the southern city of Basra and burned the Danish flag. Muslims in Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia demonstrated against the European nations whose papers published the caricatures. The drawings first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September but were reprinted this week in papers in Norway, France and Germany after Muslims decried the images as insulting. Dutch-language newspapers in Belgium and two Italian right-wing papers reprinted the drawings on Friday. Meanwhile, the Italian newspapers also ran editorials criticizing European media for giving in to pressure over the drawings.--MORE 12 02 Local Time 09 02 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/323490