Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a Washington ally who has escaped at least 10 assassination bids since taking power in 1981, was the first to sound the alarm bells on March 31, the eleventh day of the coalition's charge through Iraq.

"I fear this war will have enormous consequences and lead to an increase in terrorism. When this war ends, there may be 100 (Osama) Bin Ladens instead of just one," he said, referring to the head of the al-Qaeda network.

Mubarak has been lobbying for years to convene an international conference to coordinate the war on terror. His televised speech reflected a general concern that the US fait accompli in Iraq would fan Arab anger and trigger more attacks.

"The risk is real; all the (Arab) regimes are worried," said Dia Rashwan, a terrorism specialist at Egypt's governmental newspaper al-Ahram, pointing to the wounding of a US embassy official in Jordan on Tuesday in a shooting incident.

"What is happening now, the US occupation of an Arab country, is not a common thing, we don't see that every day; it has an enormous impact on opinion," he told AFP.

"We see that the United States has come to Iraq against the will of the international community, they want to change the political landscape in the Middle East. Resistance, or what some people call terrorism, is the only option for the Arab people," he said.

Terrorism "is a simple mean of retaliation to US ambitions," and the threat "is very real," Rashwan added.

Before and after war began, there have been countless calls for a jihad, requiring Muslims to defend their land and population but without necessarily involving violence.

The head of Al-Azhar, the world's leading Sunni Muslim authority, Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, felt he had to re-emphasize this point a few days before war started on March 20.

"Jihad to defend Iraq will be a duty to all Muslims ... but there is a difference between jihad and terrorism," he said.

Even US US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has voiced concern that the war on Iraq was fueling anti-American sentiments, stressing that the target of the coalition's action was Saddam Hussein, not the Iraqi people, nor Islam.

Rashwan believes Iraq will become the focus of terror attacks "because the American military presence will be quickly perceived as an occupation".

If any warning was needed of the potential threat, at least one US soldier was killed Thursday in Baghdad by a suicide bomber.

"The first conflict will be between Iraq's Shiite Muslims and the Americans, and this will take the form of a resistance," said Rashwan.

SPACE.WIRE