Police, protesters clash in Chicago as NATO summit opens

Baton-swinging police officers clashed with anti-war protesters at the start of the NATO summit, beating some and dragging others away.

Hundreds of demonstrators mixed with reporters and photographers were hemmed in by lines of blue-helmeted police at the concluding rally point of a protest march.

Police had ordered the demonstrators to disperse, but some stayed, chanting "Shut down NATO," and police moved in. Most of the thousands of demonstrators participating in the march dispersed peacefully.

One young man sat at the side of the street, the back of his head streaming blood. His friends said he was hit by riot police.

Reuters reporters saw at least three protesters with head injuries. Another man was holding his eye, and a girl clutched her stomach. Several demonstrators appeared dazed, suffering from exhaustion or heat stroke.

Some 2,500 to 3,000 protesters carried their anti-war message to world leaders at a NATO summit on a summer-like day that concluded with police armed in padded vests and riot helmets swinging batons and shoving demonstrators, some of whom shoved back or threw sticks and other objects at police.

Televised video of the scene showed a few demonstrators being dragged off by their arms and legs by multiple officers.

During the march, a group of black-clad demonstrators darted toward police lines along the route, and some threw water bottles at officers who pushed back and yelled at them to move along.

In what was billed as the biggest rally so far in the week leading up to the NATO summit, demonstrators ranged from those in festive costumes and a few parents pushing strollers with babies to others in all black with bandannas over their faces and carrying signs including "Anarchists alliance, DC"

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.

The Coalition Against NATO-G8, the group behind Sunday's parade that they hoped would draw 10,000 people, advocated for an immediate end to the US role in the Afghan war.

Other protesters, including participants in Occupy Wall Street demonstrations from around the nation who descended on Chicago for the summit, decried US defense spending and economic inequality.

Matt Howard, a former US Marine who served in Iraq, was one of more than three dozen veterans who threw his service medal onto the street near the summit site in a symbol of protest.

Vietnam War veteran Ron McSheffery, 61, said, "I'm in total support of stopping NATO and stopping the slaughter of innocent civilians. If we took the money we spent on bombs and put it into green energy, we wouldn't need to keep the sea lanes open" for oil transport.