New York ? Hundreds of thousands of people around the world rallied against the U.S. presence in Iraq on the first anniversary of the war Saturday, in protests that retained the anger, if not the size, of demonstrations held before the invasion began.

Protesters filled more than a dozen police-lined blocks in Manhattan, calling on President Bush to bring home U.S. troops serving in Iraq. Mayor Michael Bloomberg estimated the crowd at 30,000, but organizers said later that number had grown to more than 100,000.

“It is time to bring our children home and declare this war was unnecessary,” said the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, a New York activist addressing a rally in Manhattan.

The roughly 250 anti-war protests scheduled around the country by United for Peace and Justice ranged from solemn to brash.

In Montpelier, Vt., hundreds of silent protesters placed a pair of shoes on the Statehouse steps for each of the more than 560 U.S. soldiers killed in the war. In Los Angeles, one of thousands of protesters held photographs of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney with the words “forget Janet Jackson’s — expose the real boobs.”

More than 300 people rallied in Stevens Point, Wis., including the 5-year-old son of Sgt. Mark McClure, a Wisconsin National Guard soldier who has been stationed in the Middle East for 11 months.

Michael McClure made his own, slightly misspelled protest sign: “Let Dady Come Home.”

Worldwide dissent

Around the world, hundreds of thousands raised their voices in rallies from Spain to Egypt to the Philippines.

Dixie Lubin, Lawrence, Bangs slowly on her drum as protesters of the war in Iraq pass through downtown Lawrence. The Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice marked the first anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq with a march Saturday to honor those killed and wounded in the war. See story, page 1B.

Organizers estimated up to 2 million people demonstrated in Rome, and 100,000 in London, but police in those cities gave estimates of 250,000 and 25,000, respectively.

Anti-war activists jammed the streets of central Rome, many of them decked out in rainbow-colored peace flags and chanting “assassins.” Protesters demanded that the Italian government, a strong supporter of the war, withdraw its 2,600 troops from Iraq.

About 150,000 demonstrated in Barcelona, Spain. No crowd estimate was immediately available for Madrid, but the numbers paled in comparison to the millions that packed streets all over Spain after the Madrid train bombings that killed 202 people March 11.

The rallies coincided with the anniversary of the first bombings in Baghdad last year. Although President Bush ordered the attacks on March 19, the time difference made it March 20 in Iraq.

Nader seeks impeachment

J.M. Cowden, right, and Melissa Rabe hold up a peace flag while listening to a speaker before marching in a Peace Walk in Oklahoma City to mark the first anniversary of the war in Iraq.

In President Bush’s hometown of Crawford, about 800 peace activists from across Texas marched, chanting, “One, two, three, four, kick the liar out the door.” Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader spoke to the crowd and called for Bush’s impeachment.

Thousands of protesters marched through Chicago’s downtown shopping district. The Rev. Jesse Jackson urged the crowd to express their opposition to the war by voting against Bush.

Counterprotests

Demonstrators wave rainbow peace flags as they walk past the Colosseum during a peace rally in downtown Rome. Tens of thousands of people from across Italy poured into Rome's historic center Saturday for a massive anti-war and anti-terrorism rally, and to demand Italy pull its 2,600 troops out of Iraq.

Many of the demonstrations were accompanied by smaller gatherings of Bush supporters. Iraqi-American Kaise Urfali, 46, was among 10 people gathered at the Atlanta rally to oppose the protesters.

“These people have no clue, they have no idea about the meaning of terrorism and the meaning of freedom,” said Urfali, who said his family has lived in exile from Iraq since 1958. “These protesters talk in the name of Iraq and none of them are from Iraq, none of them lived in the terror.”