Washington  - Tens of thousands of protestors in Washington and California carried banners and shouted slogans Saturday, calling for an end to the war in Iraq.

The protests marked the sixth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003.

The ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition said more than 10,000 people marched towards the Pentagon and corporations in Virginia such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and KBR, which the demonstrators called "merchants of death."

"This was a significant protest as it's the first one since (president George W) Bush left office. It was important as we were hoping that (US President Barack) Obama would end the occupation of Iraq," the coalition's national coordinator Brian Becker told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"Bush is gone, but the occupation of Iraq continues, the war in Afghanistan is escalating and the people of Palestine are living under a state of siege."

The protestors who marched for four and a half hours included Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, members of local Arab and Muslim communities, students and trade unionists. They waved large banners that said, "Occupation is a crime," Bring the troops home now," "We need jobs and schools, not war," "Fund people's needs not the war machines."

The demonstrators also carried symbolic flag-draped coffins, laying 160 of them in front of four offices of defence contractors in Virginia, Becker told dpa.

Similar protests in Los Angeles and San Francisco drew 4,000 people each, the ANSWER coalition said.

Demonstrators at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, where the annual Academy Awards are held, staged a "die-in." About 2,000 people lay down on the street to represent soldiers who have been killed in war.

Riot police armed with rubber bullets and tear gas canisters were on alert in all three cities. There were no arrests in Washington, but the demonstrators claimed they were attacked several times in San Francisco.

"We see now that Obama is intending to maintain the occupation for three more years in Iraq and is escalating the war in Afghanistan. So it feels like we're starting all over again. We don't want this criminal invasion," Becker said.

On February 27, Obama announced that he will withdraw most US combat troops from Iraq by the end of August 2010, sharply reducing the American presence but keeping in place thousands of soldiers to support and train Iraqi forces.

There are currently more than 140,000 US troops in Iraq. Obama plans to keep about 35,000 to 50,000 soldiers to help train and equip the Iraqis and participate in special counterterrorism missions.

"Let me say this as plainly as I can: By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end," Obama said at Camp Lejeune, a Marine base in North Carolina.

All US forces must leave Iraq by the end of 2011 under the security agreement worked out by the Bush administration last year with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Obama said he intends to stand by that agreement and called on the Iraqi people to take control of their country.

Since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, 4,260 American soldiers have died, according to the Pentagon. Obama said the war has cost the United States nearly one trillion dollars.

As the US role in Iraq winds down, Obama plans to step up the effort in Afghanistan, where the security environment in the last two years has deteriorated even as Iraq has stabilized. At least 17,000 additional US troops are on the way this year to Afghanistan, and the public view of the conflict there has eroded.

"We're terribly disappointed with Obama's decisions on Iraq and Afghanistan," Becker said. "These are the first signs of disillusionment with the new president." (dpa)