The protesters, who included members of the ruling General People’s Congress party and its main opposition rival, the Islamic-oriented Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Islah), shouted: “No peace, no surrender, America is the enemy of Islam” and “Oh cheater Bush, we’re facing you with rifles”.

Some protesters burnt US, British and Israeli flags as senior scholars addressed the crowd that massed at the At-Tahrir Square here.

The top ideologist of the Islah party said in a speech that the jihad, or holy war, “emerges as an individual duty on every Muslim to face the repressive war led by America against Iraq.” Muslims must declare their readiness to join jihad camps, he added.

Demonstrators held pictures of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and placards decrying the US-British military campaign in Iraq, while hailing the “pertinacious Iraq”.

One banner applauded the “historic heroism shown by the Iraqi people in resisting the aggression.” Others read: “America is a terrorist state” and “Zionism and Americans won’t enjoy peace unless they go out of our lands” and “The aggression on Iraq is an aggression on the whole Arab nation.”

Police estimated that the marchers numbered around 70,000, but organizers put the figure at more than 300,000. Hundreds of policemen monitored the rally, which appeared to be made up mostly of school students. The authorities beefed up security around US, British, Kuwaiti and Qatari embassies ahead of the demonstration. There were no reports of confrontations with police.

Last Friday, two demonstrators were killed and 10 others injured when anti-war protests turned into clashes between riot police and thousands of protesters near the US Embassy here in the Yemeni capital. Yemeni journalists are to hold an anti-war sit-in tomorrow.

Although Yemen is one of the allies of the United States in the war against terrorism, the Arab country has rejected the war on Iraq. In an address before the Shoura Council, the lower chamber of parliament, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh dubbed the war against Iraq as “unreasonable”.