NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Hundreds of anti-war protesters rallied in Times Square to denounce the U.S. strike that killed Iran’s top general hours after protesters held a separate protest outside Sen. Chuck Schumer's Brooklyn apartment.
Video from the scene shows the protesters holding signs that read “U.S. Troops out of Iraq,” “No More War,” and “No Sanctions on Iran.”
“No justice, no peace. U.S. out of the Middle East,” some protesters were seen chanting in Times Square before they marched down Broadway.
More than 500 people are said to have taken part in the protest in Midtown Saturday afternoon.
The protest came hours after a protest outside Sen. Chuck Schumer’s Park Slope apartment Friday night. Schumer has slammed President Trump for not notifying Congress leaders about the strike.
Protesters from ANSWER Coalition and Democratic Socialists of America voiced their dismay about the strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, saying the U.S. could get dragged into another “endless war.”
“It’s just making the tensions between our two countries much worse. We all remember the war in Iraq and this seems very familiar to a lot of us, and we don’t want another disaster like that,” one man told NBC4.
Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force and mastermind of its regional security strategy, was killed early Friday near the Baghdad international airport along with senior Iraqi militants in an airstrike ordered by Trump. The attack has caused regional tensions to soar and tested the U.S. alliance with Iraq.
Iran has vowed harsh retaliation, raising fears of an all-out war, but it's unclear how or when it might respond. Any retaliation was likely to come after three days of mourning declared by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. All eyes were on Iraq, where America and Iran have competed for influence since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
The NYPD commissioner of counterterrorism says Iranians have already been caught “carrying out suspicious surveillance activities at city landmarks and in the subways.” In an op-ed in the Daily News, John Miller says that the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorism Task force has previously arrested several Hezbollah sleeper agents in the city.
Cities across the U.S. are ramping up security as a result of the deadly strike after Iran vowed retaliation. Cyber attacks are among the threats feared by officials.