More than 200 people were arrested across the United States as protesters marked the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

There were 32 arrests in Washington on Wednesday night, after demonstrators tried to block entrances to the Internal Revenue Service, while 30 others were arrested outside a congressional office building, police said.

Protesters had hoped to shut down the IRS, the US tax collection agency, to highlight the cost of the war. Police cleared the building’s entrances within an hour.

In San Francisco, long a centre of anti-Iraq war sentiment, police arrested 143 who protested through the day along Market Street, in the central business district. Sergeant Steve Maninna said charges included trespassing, resisting arrest and obstructing traffic.

“Bush and Cheney, leaders failed, Bush and Cheney belong in jail,” they chanted, referring to President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney.