BOSTON (AP) – Several anti-war veterans were arrested Sunday when they protested their exclusion from a Veterans Day event outside Boston City Hall.

The Boston chapter of a group called Veterans for Peace estimated that 15 of its members and supporters were arrested when they refused to move away from the podium at an event sponsored by the American Legion. Boston Police said several arrests were made, but did not have an exact number.

“We’re opposed to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we’re opposed to the planned invasion of Iran,” said Winston Warfield, a Vietnam War veteran and member of the group. “A lot of veterans view us as traitors.”

Warfield said the American Legion rejected their request to have a speaker at the event on City Hall Plaza. An after-hours call to the American Legion office in Boston was not immediately returned Sunday.

“From our point of view, it’s a public affair,” Warfield said, despite U.S. Supreme Court precedent that allows private groups that obtain proper permits to choose who can participate in their events.

Earlier Sunday, Gov. Deval Patrick and U.S. Sen. John Kerry honored five surviving members of the World War II Tuskegee Airmen, the first group of black fighter pilots allowed into the U.S. Army Air Corps.

Patrick presented the men with their Congressional Gold Medals. They are William M. Bennett, Charles Diggs, George W. Giddings, James McLaurin, and Willis Saunders.

“It is an honor to formally recognize these heroic pioneers,” said Patrick, the state’s first black governor. “Their bravery and ability to rise to the challenges of the time and of war will be forever remembered, as will the great courage of all the men and women who have served our country in the past and who do so now across the world.”

The Statehouse event included a tribute to women veterans, led by Air Force Capt. Jenny D’Olympia.

AP-ES-11-11-07 1725EST