More than 300 war protests were held or planned across the United States Thursday, the morning after President George W Bush announced the start of an invasion of Iraq.
"With the war now having begun, we call on you to join with United for Peace and Justice (UPJ) and other groups around the country in visible and passionate protest," UPJ said in a statement posted on its website.
"However you choose to express your opposition to war - from solemn vigils to loud marches to nonviolent direct action - get out on the streets immediately and join with millions around the world in demanding an end to the bloodshed."
Major protests were planned Thursday evening in large US cities including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Dallas and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
With such slogans as "Peace is Patriotic" and "Not in our Name," the planned protests ranged from simple rallies of people to massive lightings of candles.
In New York, where the World Trade Center was destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 with 2,800 lives lost, which triggered the US war on terrorism, a huge anti-war demonstration was planned in central Manhattan's Times Square.
Another was planned at "ground zero," the spot where the World Trade Center's hallmark twin towers once stood.
"The Bush administration has begun a terrorist assault against Iraq," the peace group ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) said in a statement.
It called for "emergency response of protests and walkouts."
"Iraq, a country that has not attacked or threatened the United States, is now the subject of a state-sponsored terrorist assault from the skies," said ANSWER.
"In the coming days and weeks, anti-war forces in the United States and around the world will intensify their protests, opposition and resistance to this illegal and immoral war."
AFP