LONDON, 24 March 2003 — From Australia to Italy, protesters marched and shouted against war in Iraq yesterday. Some hung a peace banner on Rome’s Colosseum, and in Bangladesh, disabled demonstrators waved pictures of wounded Iraqi children.

In the first ever anti-US protests in the country, thousands of Afghans yesterday took to the streets of eastern Afghanistan chanting slogans and demanding a halt to attacks on Iraq, officials said.

More than 10,000 people swarmed through Laghman provincial capital Mehtarlam shouting “Allahu-Akbar” (God is Great), torching the flags of the United States, Britain and other coalition members, said Gen. Asmatullah, Laghman divisional commander.

In Sydney, Australia, between 30,000 and 50,000 protesters called for an end to the invasion of Iraq and pleaded for their country’s 2,000 troops in the area to be brought home. Demonstrators condemned Prime Minister John Howard for his staunch support of the American-led offensive. Protests were more scattered than on Saturday, when dozens of coordinated demonstrations around Europe and America each drew tens of thousands of people.

In London on Saturday, an estimated 200,000 marched, 150,000 to half a million demonstrated in Barcelona, Spain, and 125,000 protested in New York. Though noisy, the weekend’s demonstrations were smaller than those that jammed cities across the world as war loomed on Feb. 15.

In mostly Muslim Bangladesh, a group of disabled people — some in wheelchairs or leaning on crutches — rallied peacefully against the war in front of the parliament building in the capital Dhaka. Demonstrators carried photographs of Iraqi children with bandaged limbs and shouted “War maims!”

Thousands protested at two US military bases in Italy. Activists draped a long black banner across Rome’s Colosseum in a gesture of mourning for the victims of war, and a large sign with the words “Against the War, Rome for Peace” was raised at the start of the city’s marathon.

In Japan, up to 2,000 rallied peacefully in several cities, including Hiroshima, where demonstrators gathered in front of a memorial for those killed when America dropped an atomic bomb during World War 11.

Clashes continued for a third straight day outside the US Embassy in Bahrain, where demonstrators threw stones and set tires ablaze. About 200 protesters fought with riot police and the US and British embassies remained closed. More than 15,000 students at four Egyptian universities protested on the schools’ grounds.

In Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, demonstrators threw stones and empty bottles at the US Embassy, and thousands of protesters marched to a United Nations office. A Khartoum demonstration on Saturday turned deadly, with authorities investigating the shooting death of a student protester.

In Athens, Greece, police said opponents of the war carried out arson attacks on an American bank and fast-food outlet.

Anti-war activists protested in Indonesia, saying the killing of President Bush would be legal under Islamic law. Demonstrators torched a US flag and an effigy of Bush.