ATHENS (Reuters) - A group of Greek communist party supporters tried to take down a statue of former U.S. president Harry Truman in central Athens on Monday during a protest against air strikes on Syria by the United States, Britain and France on Saturday. Protesters used a metal grinder to try to cut off the statue’s feet and tug it down with ropes before riot police intervened and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. At least three people were injured, while the statue – which has been targeted several times in the past, ostensibly as a "symbol of US imperialism" – suffered minor damage. At least three protesters from the Greek Communist Party were injured, with blood trickling from their heads, according to reports. “The statue is a symbol of imperialism and the United States in Greece.”

The 12-foot, bronze Truman statue, also not far from the prime minister’s office, has been a regular target of protesters who have vandalised or attacked it with paint against what they call American “imperialism” in Greece.
Police clash with KKE protestors in Athens, Greece, firing tear gas as the crowd uses angle grinders in an attempt to topple a statue of former U.S. President Harry Truman in response to the United States' airstrikes in Syria. Three protestors are injured.