Clare Short, the former international development secretary, has compared insurgents in Iraq to the French resistance of the second world war.

She told Gulf News that the killing of civilians was always wrong, but the cause was just.

"I think it's always wrong to target civilians, because even when you understood the IRA, they never targeted civilians. That's a terrible moral deterioration that's taken place," she said.

"But I understand the anger and the demand for action and it's not good enough for the world to say state violence is okay and non-state violence is not okay.

"The American public fought against British colonialism with violence, the free French fought against German occupation with violence, the Palestinian people are entitled to resist occupation. I mean, it's in international law [and] the Iraqi people are entitled [to resist occupation]."