Second anniversary of Iraq invasion: thousands protest in London, other cities

Thousands of people gathered at Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park Saturday brandishing posters denouncing the "war on terror", marking the second anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq. Pictures of US President George W. Bush under the title "World's Number One Terrorist" and banners saying "No War in Iran" mingled with others warning British Prime Minister Tony Blair that people would not vote for him in an expected general election in May due to his support for the invasion.
Some 100,000 people were expected to march through central London to protest against the Iraq war and other elements of the US-led war on terror, organisers said. Police early Saturday afternoon estimated the crowd at 10,000 to 20,000.
Starting at Speaker's Corner and ending at Trafalgar Square, the demonstrators will hear speeches by anti-war campaigners such as the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, and former Guantanamo Bay inmate Martin Mubanga and place a coffin in front of the US embassy.
It will be the first mass demonstration outside the building since it became a flashpoint of anti-Vietnam War protests in 1968, the organisers said.
"We need help to make this demonstration as big as possible" the action group, which organised Saturday's rally, Stop The War Coalition, said on its website.
"With rumours of an attack on Iran in June and the demonstration being a matter of weeks before the general election it would be fantastic to have many hundreds of thousands of people expressing their anti-war sentiment," it said.
Campaigners with loudspeakers called on people to rally in protest against the "war on terror" and also urged them to gather again in Scotland in July when Blair is due to host a Group of Eight meeting of industrialised countries as president of the G8.
"I want to stop the war, I am from China and we are probably next on (Bush's) list after Syria and Iran," said Laurence Wong, 48, a teacher living in London who was calling on people to sign a petition to stop any attack on Iran and Syria.
HUNDREDS MARCH IN TURKISH CITIES:
ANKARA: Several hundred people took to the streets in Turkish cities Saturday to protest at the war in Iraq, two years after the US-led invasion of the country to topple Saddam Hussein's regime.
In Ankara, Istanbul and Adana, which all host US diplomatic missions, demonstrators denounced the Iraqi "occupation".
"United States, leave Iraq," a banner read in Istanbul as protesters shouted anti-US slogans under the watchful eyes of a massive police force, Anatolia news agency said.
In the capital Ankara, protestors, stopped from getting close to the US embassy, shouted: "Stop the occupation of Iraq; Iraq to the Iraqis."
The protests were organised by political parties and trade unions.
STOCKHOLM: Up to 1,000 demonstrators protested in Stockholm on Saturday against the occupation of Iraq, on the second anniversary of the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.
"US out of Iraq," was the rallying call as protesters marched from downtown Stockholm to the American embassy, east of the city centre.
The policies of Washington and its allies in other parts of the world also came in for criticism, as demonstrators brandished banners with "US hands off Venezuela", "Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq?", and "Israel out of Palestine". Police estimated the number of demonstrators at between 500 and 1,000.
The protest, organised by "Naetverket mot krig" (Network against War) started in the early afternoon with speeches by parliamentarians from the Left Party, the Green Party and Social Democrats, who spoke out against the administration of US President George W. Bush, but also their own government.
ATHENS: Thousands of demonstrators marched in Athens against the US-led occupation of Iraq on Saturday in a protest marking the second anniversary of the war to topple Saddam Hussein's regime.
Organised by the General Confederation of Workers (GSEE), the Federation of Greek Civil Servants (ADEDY) and the Athens Labour Centre (EKA), the protest attracted some 5,000 workers, students and leftists, an organiser told AFP.
The police placed the number of demonstrators at 2,000. Gathering at Athens' central Syntagma Square, where a rock concert was held prior to the march, the demonstrators were addressed by Sue Niederer, the mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq.