LEADALL: Worldwide protests as Iraq war enters fifth year

By Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Mar 18, 2007, 1:11 GMT

With the war in Iraq poised to enter its fifth year, tens of thousands of demonstrators Saturday flooded the streets of

Washington, Hungary, Spain, Australia, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, South Korea, Chile, Sweden, Iraq and elsewhere in protest.

The protests were timed to coincide with the fourth anniversary on Tuesday of the Iraq war, which has claimed the lives of at least 70,000 civilians and nearly 10,000 soldiers and police officers from Iraq, the US and eight coalition countries.

In Hungary, thousands of people holding torches formed the peace sign on Heroes' Square in Budapest.

In Istanbul, Turkish activists held up peace flags and signs saying 'We're all Iraqis' and 'Go back home Bush!' The Coalition against the War in Iraq gathered supporters in Nicosia, Cyprus, to protest.

Some 2,000 South Korean anti-war protestors were met by a massive block of riot-gear clad police in Seoul.

In Athens, an estimated 6,000 people, including critics of globalization, left-wing parties and unions, demonstrated at the US embassy.

A handful of Australian activists, about 300 or one-third the number organizers had anticipated, marched through Sydney, while more marched in other cities. Greens member of parliament Kerry Nettle said she had campaigned against Australian participation when it was first mooted.

'Four years on, how things have changed,' Nettle told the gathering. 'The issue of Iraq is the disaster we all said it would be. The predictions have not only come true, it's worse.'

Thousands of Spanish demonstrators walked through the streets of Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia and Pamplona, accusing the US, Britain and the government of former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar of crimes against humanity.

In Washington, DC, an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people braved winter weather to gather at the Lincoln Memorial and cross the Memorial Bridge to assemble in the north parking lot of the Pentagon. A number of Iraq war veteran groups and American Muslim organizations participated.

The turnout was less than a third of the massive showing organizers called for. They had hoped for an outpouring similar to the 1967 march on the Pentagon that signalled the beginning of the end of the Vietnam war.

On Friday, about 3,000 members of US Christian groups held a separate protest to pray for peace at the National Cathedral and march to the White House. About 200 were detained for refusing to stay on the sidewalk.

And also on Friday, in Sadr City, Iraq, where the US military has boosted its presence as part of a new plan to secure Baghdad, 10,000 Shiites staged a protest against the influx of American soldiers and the opening of a joint US-Iraqi force base.

Saturday's demonstrations came as suicide attacks in Iraq killed at least 10 people and wounded dozens others in the cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Baghdad. At least eight people were killed and scores wounded when two tankers filled with chlorine exploded in separate incidents in and around the restive Iraqi city of Fallujah, Voices of Iraq news agency reported Saturday.

In the four years since the US-led coalition ousted the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was executed in December, an estimated 2 million Iraqis have fled their country and another 2 million are believed to be internally displaced.