Protesters in several US cities held anti-war rallies Saturday to mark the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, March 20th. More rallies are planned in coming days in other U.S. cities. Several thousand joined an anti-war protest in Los Angeles.

今年3月20号是美国攻打伊拉克五周年，美国几座城市的抗议者星期六举行反战集会。未来几天美国其它城市也计划举行类似抗议集会。有几千人参加了洛杉矶的反战示威。

Marchers chanted and some carried flag-draped coffins as speakers demanded that U.S. troops come home.

集会者高呼口号，有些人还抬着用国旗覆盖的棺木，集会发言人要求美国军队撤离伊拉克回国。集会者高呼，“停止战争......”

Sharaf Mowjood of the Council on American-Islamic Relations says the continued presence of American troops is worsening conditions in Iraq, and diverting attention from domestic U.S. problems, including rebuilding New Orleans. The city was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

美国-伊斯兰关系协会的谢拉夫.莫吉奥德表示，美国军队继续驻扎伊拉克，正在恶化那里的局势，并且会转移人们对重建新奥尔良等美国国内问题的注意力。新奥尔良市在2005年的卡特里娜飓风中受到严重破坏。

"We need to pull out immediately. That's the main thing right now we need to do. It's a conundrum as it is," he said. "So it's in a situation where the best viable option is to pull out because you have a lot of these internal problems you have to deal with, health care, sub-prime mortgage crisis, Katrina, all that. We need to work on those issues first."

谢拉夫.莫吉奥德说：“我们需要立即从伊拉克撤军。这是目前我们需要做的首要事情。这本来就是一道难题。因此，目前情况下最佳可行选择就是撤军，理由是，国内现在有大量问题急待解决，比如医疗保健，次级房屋抵押贷款危机，卡特里娜飓风后的重建等等。我们需要首先解决这些问题。”

Members of religious, labor and community groups joined the Los Angeles demonstration. Madelyn MacKay, a Quaker, says the protests are sending a message to the candidates in the November 4 presidential election.

宗教组织、劳工组织以及一些社团的成员加入了洛杉矶反战示威。贵格会教徒马德琳.麦凯说，抗议示威活动是向参加11月4号总统选举的候选人传递一个信息。

"And I think this sort of unity among groups for this one cause in the country is a big message to all of the candidates running that there is a lot of support through all kinds of organizations and all kinds of communities, people that do want us to get out of the war quickly," she said.

马德琳.麦凯说：“我认为，在这个国家，各个组织和团体因为这样一个原因而如此心齐，是向所有总统参选人传递一条重要信息，那就是希望我们国家尽快结束伊拉克战争，这得到各个组织和各个社团以及全体民众的大力支持。”

Protests were also scheduled Saturday for Albuquerque, Austin, and other U.S. cities.

阿尔伯克基、奥斯汀等美国其它城市星期六也曾计划要举行抗议示威。

More anti-war events are scheduled in San Francisco, Chicago and Washington D.C. on March 19, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

此外，旧金山、芝加哥和华盛顿哥伦比亚特区定于3月19号，也就是美国领导的攻打伊拉克行动的前一天，举行反战活动。