Thousands of Greeks protest against US-led airstrikes

Thousands of Greeks in central Athens turned up at a rally organised by the Communist Party to protest against the US-led airstrikes against Syria.

The protesters gathered Saturday at Syntagma Square before marching to the U.S. Embassy, chanting anti-U.S. slogans and carrying banners. Some wrote on the streets in red paint: "Americans are murderers."

Police successfully barricaded access to the embassy and protesters left peacefully.

Dimitris Koutsoumbas, the Communist Party's leader, blasted Greek politicians for believing "flimsy excuses about a use of chemical weapons" by Syria. He also criticised their "subservience" to the EU and NATO, as well as their support for Israel.

He told the crowd "the imperialists once again spill the blood of the local people. They destroy and splinter states by using fabricated evidence."

EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos said in an interview with ANA, "The images of the attacks with chemical weapons in Syria were unacceptable. The use of chemical weapons is unacceptable throughout the world and cannot be justified on any account. The response by the United States, France and the United Kingdom changes things and we will see how the situation will unfold over the coming days."

Greece lies in a privileged but sensitive geographical location, on the margins of a geopolitical arc of instability, Avramopoulos said, which is caused by "significant geopolitical reconfigurations in the wider region and is being maintained by internal and external factors," he added.