Thousands of protesters marched from Washington D.C. to the steps of Pentagon on the other side of the Potomac River Saturday, to mark the 4th anniversary of the Iraq war, which falls on March 20.

Protesters were carrying such signs that read "U.S. Out of Iraq Now" and "Stop Iraq War, No Iran War, Impeach," "Bring Our Troops Home", "Stop Occupation in Iraq" and so on.

Some demonstrators were dressed like Guantanamo prisoners while a father whose son was killed in Iraq, drove his pick-up car with a coffin on the top of it.

Williams Tucker, a Vietnam War veteran from Kentucky, said politicians should bring U.S. forces home immediately instead of " playing politics with the troops."

"We should stop occupation of Iraq, and bringing peace back to the Middle East," he said.

Vivian Hampson, a grandmother from Pittsburgh, Penn., said Iraq war is a huge mistake and won't make the country safer as the Bush administration claimed.

"What they really want is to occupy the Middle East and control the oil resource. But we must not let them waste American money and lives on such a wrong cause," she said.

Organizers of the event draws parallel between the event with the historical march on the Pentagon against the Vietnam War in October 1967, which marked a tipping point for the anti-war movement to go mainstream.

Saturday's march began near the Vietnam War Memorial, just a few blocks away from the White House, and proceeded across the Potomac River toward the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.

It was not immediately clear exactly how many protestors showed up for the march on the chilly but sunny afternoon, but they began moving over the Memorial Bridge on the Potomac River at about 1 p. m. and were done about an hour later.

There were no official estimates of the number of participants, but some news reports put the number at about 10,000 to 20,000.

The organizers of the march -- led by the anti-war group network A.N.S.W.E.R.( Coalition, for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) -- appeared to set their sites on a range of sweeping goals, from the impeachment of U.S. President George W. Bush to the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

After demonstrators arrived in the north side of the Pentagon, Cindy Sheehan, the "anti-war mom" who made headlines camping outside the Bush's Texas ranch after her son was killed in Iraq, took the stage and delivered a speech, calling for "stopping the war machine".

Anita Dennis, whose son refused the military's call to go to Iraq again, said people should support such resistance to "save lives."

Michael Berg, whose son died in Iraq, urged the lawmakers to stop funding the war and "impeach Bush."

On Friday night, a coalition of Christian groups led several thousand marchers in a procession from the National Cathedral. Dozens were arrested praying in front of the White House.

Outside Washington D.C., similar anti-war demonstrations were also held across the U.S. and around the world in the days ahead of next Tuesday's Iraq war anniversary.

Anti-war rallies were planned for New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Hartford, Conn., and Lincoln, Neb.

Around the globe, about 1,000 people protested in Athens, Greece, while more than 3,000 gathered for peaceful protests in Istanbul, Turkey. Others gathered in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia.

Source: Xinhua