Militant Anti-War Demonstrations Around the World

Hundreds of Iranian demonstrators threw stones and broke windows of the British embassy during a protest against Britain's role in the US-led war on Iraq. Thousands of protestors gathered in front of the embassy after what was the biggest demonstration so far in Iran against the assault on neighbouring Iraq. They overturned an empty guard post at the entrance, burned British flags and said they would tear down the flag flying on the building, but they were kept away from the embassy by Iranian riot police. The demonstrators were among tens of thousands who had marched at the call of the Islamic Republic's authorities after Friday prayers, where in one mosque they were fired up by senior cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, who called US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair "war criminals." They converged on Revolution Square shouting "Death to America," "Death to Israel" and the less commonly heard slogan "Death to Britain."

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More than 30,000 Palestinians protested against the US-led war on Iraq in demonstrations around the Gaza Strip and West Bank after Muslim weekly prayers.

The largest protest took place in the Nasser district of Gaza City on Friday where more than 20,000 responded to calls, notably from the Islamic radical group Hamas, for Palestinians to rally in support of Iraq. Waving Iraqi flags, the demonstrators condemned the United States, Britain and Israel.

In the West Bank, a crowd of more than 5,000 marched in Nablus carrying portraits of Saddam and the red-white-black Iraqi colours. They burnt effigies of US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Thousands more gathered after prayers in the mosque at separate rallies in Ramallah, north of Jerusalem, and in Halhul, near the town of Hebron, many condemning Arab states for their lack of support for Baghdad.

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In Amman, Jordan, about 3,000 anti-war protesters were stopped by riot police who prevented them from reaching the Israeli Embassy. In the southern city of Maan, Jordan, a municipal guard threw a tear gas grenade when part of a demonstration of 6,000 people approached the city hall.

In Cairo, Egypt, more than 15,000 protesters marched from Al-Azhar mosque through the medieval part of the city, chanting "with our soul and blood, we redeem you Baghdad." Many demonstrators waved copies of the Quran, the Islamic holy book, and some held banners that read "Open the doors for Jihad," or holy war. Plainclothes police officers beat two women and a teenager with plastic truncheons. But the demonstration was far calmer than one in central Cairo a week earlier, when rock-throwing protesters clashed with stick-wielding police and burned a fire engine. After the violence, the government detained scores of political activists, including opposition members of parliament, a crackdown criticized by human rights groups.

At a demonstration in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, more than 5,000 protesters marched through one of the main posh boulevards in the first demonstrations here since the war began. The crowd, mostly Pakistani and Indian, shouted anti-war slogans and wore Iraqi flags on their heads. "God, please protect the Iraqi people," the crowd chanted. Some others shouted: "Bush is a terrorist." The march grew as it marched through the boulevard, watched by a few hundred police officers. They tried to reach the British Consulate but were stopped by police. Hundreds of Iraqis also took part, shouting anti-war slogans and calling Iraqi opposition "traitors" for their support of the war. Um Ali, an Iraqi woman in her late fifties, said, "We Iraqis in exile don't want (Americans) to come liberate our country. They are coming to occupy our land," she said in tears.

In Lebanon, about 1,500 people demonstrated against the war in the eastern town of Rashaya, some carrying pictures of Saddam. Three French women, who teach at a local school, took part.

In Tripoli, in northern Lebanon, two Cabinet members joined more than 40,000 Lebanese and Palestinians from leftist and Islamic parties in a street demonstration. Some protesters led a donkey covered with an American and Israeli flag that read, "This is Bush." In the Al Badawi refugee camp near Tripoli, Mohammed Sadek, a Palestinian, set his American-made car ablaze to protest the U.S.-led war on Iraq and U.S. support for Israel.

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In Indian-controlled Kashmir, police fired tear gas at protesters, while shops shut and roads were deserted for the second day in a row as part of a strike called by an outlawed Islamic rebel group. After Friday prayers at the shrine for a 12th-century Muslim saint, about 250 Muslims shouted anti-American slogans and burned American flags and an effigy of President Bush, then hurled stones and bricks at police, who then burst tear gas shells to disperse them.

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In Seoul, South Korea , police scuffled with anti-war protesters outside the National Assembly.

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A dozen cars at a Ford dealership on the outskirts of Rome were set on fire, and a banner reading "Sabotage the imperialist war" was hung on the gate of the lot.