EDINBURGH, Aug 26: British writer Harold Pinter called Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday a “war criminal” and said an attack against Iraq by US and British forces would be deliberate murder.

Speaking at an international book festival in Edinburgh, Pinter, 71, said a strike would fail to kill Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, but instead leave thousands of innocent Iraqis dead.

Pinter, author of No Mans Land, also took aim at former US president Bill Clinton, saying the allied air strikes in the Balkans in the 1990s killed young girls. Clinton and Blair should face war crimes charges, he said.

Pinter, who has been diagnosed with cancer, said chemotherapy has helped him defeat the disease. —dpa