Chicago protesters: We support the troops

CHICAGO, March 24 (UPI) -- Police arrested 17 anti-war protesters in Chicago Monday as about 50 to 75 people sang for peace outside a federal building calling for a cease-fire in the 5-day-old war in Iraq.

"We support the troops 100 percent. We condemn the war 100 percent," said Michael McConnell, an activist who said protesters' hearts went out to those fallen in battle, their families and prisoners of war taken during weekend fighting near An Nasiriyah, Iraq, where an Army maintenance convoy was ambushed.

Protesters chanted "no war" and sang in a non-violent protest demonstration organized by Iraq Peace Pledge and the Quaker-affiliated American Friends Service Committee.

Police, some in riot gear, allowed the group to sit in, chant and sing for about 40 minutes before making the first of 17 arrests when protesters tried to block access to the government building. About 600 people have been arrested in Chicago and more than 3,000 nationally during anti-war demonstrations and marches since Thursday.

"Arrests and civil disobedience is still peaceful," McConnell told WFLD-TV. "It's just an intense way of showing that people are against this illegal war and feel like if the United States is breaking international law, it's necessary to break a smaller civil law to make a point for peace."

Protesters called for a cease-fire to negotiate the release of the POWs and said they wanted U.S. troops back home safe.

"Well, the hearts of the people go out to all those casualties and families of those who may be prisoners of war," McConnell said.

Students at the University of Illinois walked out of classes on the Chicago campus for a march and rally and the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago sponsored an interfaith prayer service at St. James Episcopal Cathedral.

"We issue this call to prayer at a very sad time," said the Rev. Paul Rutgers, the council's executive director. "We have worked and prayed that a peaceful, diplomatic solution might have been found which would have made this moment unnecessary. Now we must join in prayer and hope."

San Francisco police reported more than 125 arrests of protesters blocking traffic outside the landmark TransAmerica Pyramid building in the Financial District and at a federal building as anti-war demonstrations resumed after a one-day lull.

About 150 people waved American flags Sunday in front of the main Post Office in downtown St. Louis while other war supporters spent the weekend urging suburban motorists to honk if they back the troops.

"There have been lots of times you couldn't hear yourself," Carol Biggerstaff, who has a son in 101st Airborne Division, told Monday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Tens of thousands of people attended weekend rallies around the nation in support of U.S. troops. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty spoke at a Saturday rally that drew more than 10,000 to the steps of the state Capitol in St. Paul. About 7,000 protesters marched to Macalester College calling for the troops to come home.

At least 11 cities in Iowa and southern Minnesota have decorated streets with Fourth of July bunting, decorations and American flags in support of the troops.

Web sites, including anyservicemember.org and scrappleface.com, are encouraging people to send messages of support to American soldiers in the war zone.