Police arrested monks, priests, rabbis and other clergy in San Francisco on Friday while a dozen other protesters linked with plastic piping were arrested near the White House in Washington D.C.
The arrests were the latest of several thousand detentions nationwide since the United States and Britain began a war with Iraq aimed at disarming the country and toppling President Saddam Hussein.
In San Francisco, home to perhaps the most active U.S. anti-war movement, nuns, priests, Buddhist monks, rabbis and others gathered at the city's federal building.
"We are here as Jews, Christians, Muslims and Buddhists to proclaim that the world can be healed," Rabbi Michael Lerner said at an earlier interfaith service.
A federal official said 83 people were arrested. "This is an extremely broad movement against the war, a movement that transcends all religions," said attorney Kevin Lynema, who was offering legal assistance to the demonstrators.
In Washington, anti-war protesters blocked traffic on 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, just two blocks from the White House, by linking themselves together with plastic piping.
Police took away the 13 protesters, who were lying on the ground chained together during the morning rush hour,
In Northampton in western Massachusetts, police said they arrested 25 protesters who staged a "die-in" against the war.
HIGH COST OF PROTESTS
On Wednesday, U.S. Parks Police arrested about 65 protesters in a park opposite the White House, including two Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Vietnam-era protester Daniel Ellsberg and a group of religious leaders.
San Francisco has arrested far more than 2,000 people since the start of the war although protests have slowed this week.
A survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors released on Thursday found that San Francisco, a city of 775,000 residents, spent the second highest amount of money in the nation on additional security costs since the start of the Iraq war.
The bill of $2.6 million, largely on police overtime costs, was second only to New York, a city with more than 10 times as many residents.
Police in New York arrested 215 protesters on Thursday, including some 150 who lay down in the middle of New York's 5th Avenue during the morning rush hour as part of a "die-in" to protest the U.S.-led war on Iraq.
San Francisco also hosted a pro-war rally on Friday, an event rare in the liberal city. Activists said they also plan to hold rallies in three Texas cities home to major universities from late Friday to show support for U.S. troops.
"At the 'Rallies for America' throughout Texas this weekend, freedom-loving citizens will stand united in support of President (George W.) Bush, our brave men and women in the armed forces, and human rights for the Iraqi people who continue to be brutally slaughtered by Saddam Hussein's ghastly regime," said Austin Kinghorn of the Young Conservatives of Texas.