San Francisco, January 5 (RHC)-- More than 70 demonstrations took place across the United States on Saturday to protest the Trump administration's killing of a top Iranian general and decision to send about 3,000 more soldiers to the Middle East.

The protests were spearheaded by Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, a U.S.-based anti-war coalition, in conjunction with more than a dozen organizations.  The coalition is demanding that the U.S. withdraw all troops from Iraq and end its war on Iran, according to spokesperson Walter Smolarek.

Demonstrations took place outside the White House and in New York City's Times Square.  Actress Jane Fonda, who has been organizing weekly protests against political inaction on climate change, joined the demonstration in D.C. and spoke to protesters at a rally.

"The targeted assassination and murder of a central leader of Iran is designed to initiate a new war.  Unless the people of the United States rise up and stop it, this war will engulf the whole region and could quickly turn into a global conflict of unpredictable scope and potentially the gravest consequences," ANSWER said on its website.

Kole Oakes, candidate member with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, said the Memphis protests had already been planned due to the siege of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.  However, they took on a new sense of urgency when a U.S. airstrike killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimanihe said.

"We’re hoping to convey that the Iraqi people, the Irani people are not our enemies, that they are our brothers and sisters in the struggle and it is the imperialist capitalist system that is our enemy," Oakes said.