Arrests made at US war protests

Activists gather in capital on fifth anniversary of invasion of Iraq.

US war protest

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Protesters remembered the dead as they gathered at Arlington cemetary [Reuters]

At least 32 people have been arrested during protests in Washington DC marking the fifth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, police said.

About 100 Protesters in the US capital blocked the entrance to the Internal Revenue Service, the US tax collection agency, as campaigners attempted to focus attentions on funding for the war.

The activists were arrested when they cross barriers outside the building, police said.

The protest was one of a number marking the Iraq war set to take place across the US.

We wanted to put our bodies between the money and what that money goes to fund – the war, the occupation, the bombs,” said Frida Berrigan, from the War Resisters League.

“It would have been nice to shut down the building for the whole day but I think this was a good symbolic action,” she said.

Protests planned

At the American Petroleum Institute in downtown Washington, dozens of protesters held signs reading “Out of Iraq” and  “No blood for Oil!”

In Miami, a small group of protesters ressed in black waved anti-war signs at drivers stuck in early morning rush-hour traffic near the US Southern Command military complex.

In New York, protesters from the Granny Peace Brigade were set to hold a “knit-in” at the Times Square military recruitment center that was targeted in a bomb attack earlier this month.

The grandmothers were to knit stump socks for amputee veterans and baby blankets for Iraqi families.

“We grannies hope to highlight our message demanding an end to this useless and catastrophic war,” said Barbara Walker, 74.

In Chicago, a rally was to be held in the central business district while in Louisville, Kentucky protestors were to read out loud the names of some of the nearly 4,000 US troops killed and the Iraqi civilians killed and displaced.

Protestors in Dallas, Texas will perform music and hear Iraq veterans speak against the war on the grassy knoll overlooking the plaza where president John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Source: News Agencies