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Summary Protesters clashed with police in Chicago during a demonstration against the NATO summit.
Police clashed with protesters in Chicago during an anti-war demonstration near where world leaders gathered at a NATO summit on Sunday.Thousands of protesters marched through downtown Chicago on a steamy Sunday in a mostly peaceful march led by a group of Iraq War veterans who symbolically gave back their military medals.During the march, a group of demonstrators, many wearing all black and covering their faces with bandanas, darted toward police lines along the route, and some threw water bottles at officers who pushed back and yelled at them to move along, but there were no major incidents.Police chased after a black-clad protester, surrounded and arrested him.Police estimated the crowd at 2,500 to 3,000 people, although it appeared to be larger, in what was the biggest rally so far in the week leading up to the NATO summit.Riot police made a bigger show of force and watched the march more closely than earlier in the week. They were also more open in displaying their equipment including body armor.Demonstrators had little chance of being seen by the world leaders and representatives from some 60 countries at the meeting of the military alliance. The summit site, the McCormick Place convention center, is inside a security zone guarded by tall fences.Protesters were kept blocks away from the convention center.President Barack Obama, who is hosting the summit in his hometown, kicked off the meeting by greeting NATO members one by one. NATO leaders are seeking to chart a path out of the unpopular war in Afghanistan.In several brief skirmishes, some black-clad, bandanna-wearing protesters pushed and screamed at police.Five men have been arrested on terrorism-related or bomb-making charges. Three of those charged were plotting to attack Obamas campaign headquarters, police stations and other targets, according to court documents. Defense lawyers said the three were entrapped by police informants.An affiliate of the computer hacking group Anonymous said it had brought down the website for Chicagos police department and another city website to protest the summit. The websites were back up a few hours later.Fears that violence would erupt have so far proved unfounded as police have absorbed torrents of verbal abuse screamed at them by protesters. Experts credited the low arrest numbers to restraint by both police and protesters.
