Syria bombing protesters clashed with riot police as demonstrations against the airstrike attack by US,
UK and French forces saw furious activists try to pull down a statue of former US President
Harry Truman.
Protesters used a metal grinder to try to cut off the statue’s feet and tug it down with ropes before riot police intervened and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.
At least three protesters from the Greek Communist Party were injured, with blood trickling from their heads, according to reports.
The statue suffered minor damage following the riots on the streets of Athens.
Several hundred KKE supporters joined a march to the US Embassy, a couple of miles from the statue, in the third demonstration in Athens against Saturday’s air strikes.
Yorgos Perros, a member of the communist-affiliated union PAME, said:“What we did today is a symbolic move against the US and the war in Syria.
“The statue is a symbol of imperialism and the United States in Greece.”
The riot erupted after Theresa May launched military action in Syria in the early hours of Saturday as part of the US-led airstrikes following the alleged chemical attack in
Douma little over a week ago.
The PM demanded that the use of
chemical weapons in Syria “must stop now”.
She described the alleged chemical attack in Douma as “an act of almost unimaginable horror”, and referred to the horrifying scenes which caused her to take action.
The 12-foot, bronze Truman statue, also not far from the prime minister’s office, has been a regular target of protesters who have vandalised or attacked it with paint against what they call American “imperialism” in Greece.
Many also believe Washington backed the military junta that ruled Greece from 1967-74 as well as the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 following a brief Greek-backed coup.
The statue had to be removed and restored in 1986 after being bombed.
Truman was US president from 1945 to 1953.
More than 100 missiles were launched at Syria in a series of coordinated precision strikes, in the early morning hours of Saturday April 14.
The deadly volley of joint-military might comes in the aftermath of Syrian regime forces allegedly using illegal chemical weapons in the town of Douma on April 7, killing around 70 people including many women and children.
The chemical attack which has so far been denied by the
Russian-backed Bashar al-Assad regime has sparked worldwide condemnation and calls for military intervention.
International leaders have now rallied to defend the missile strikes as means of ending the atrocities carried out in Syria.
The United States alongside Britain and
France targeted three targets, including Damascus, related to the country’s burgeoning chemical weapons programme.