SANAA/CAIRO (Reuters) - Demonstrators attacked the U.S.
embassies in Yemen and Egypt on Thursday in protest at a film they
consider blasphemous to Islam and American warships headed to Libya
after the death of the U.S. ambassador there in related violence earlier
in the week.
Hundreds of Yemeni demonstrators broke through the main
gate of the heavily fortified compound in eastern Sanaa, shouting "We
sacrifice ourselves for you, Messenger of God". Earlier they smashed
windows of security offices outside the embassy and burned cars.
"We can see a fire inside the compound and security
forces are firing in the air. The demonstrators are fleeing and then
charging back," one witness told Reuters. A security source said at
least 15 people were wounded, some by bullets. An embassy spokesman said
its personnel were reported to be safe.
In Egypt, protesters hurled stones at a police cordon
around the U.S. embassy in central Cairo after climbing into the embassy
and tearing down the American flag. The state news agency said 13
people were injured in violence which erupted on Wednesday night after
protests on Tuesday.
Islamist gunmen staged a military-style assault on the
U.S. consulate and a safe house refuge in Benghazi, eastern Libya on
Tuesday. The U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other
Americans died in the assault, carried out with guns, mortars and
grenades. Eight Libyans were injured.
U.S. President Barack Obama vowed to "bring to justice"
those responsible and the U.S. military moved two navy destroyers
towards the Libyan coast, in what a U.S. official said was a move to
give the administration flexibility for any future action against Libyan
targets.
Obama said security was being increased at U.S.
diplomatic posts around the globe and on Thursday the U.S. consulate in
Berlin was partially evacuated after an employee fell ill on opening a
suspicious envelope.
About 1,000 Bangladeshi Islamists tried to march on the
U.S. embassy in Dhaka after protests earlier in the week outside U.S.
missions in Tunisia, Sudan and Morocco.
The U.S. military dispatched a Marine Corps
anti-terrorist team to boost security in Libya, whose leader Muammar
Gaddafi was ousted in a U.S.-backed uprising last year.
The attack, which U.S. officials said may have been
planned in advance, came on the 11th anniversary of al Qaeda's attacks
on the United States on September 11, 2001.
FILM
The attackers were part of a mob blaming America for a
film they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad. Clips of the "Innocence of
Muslims," had been circulating on the Internet for weeks before the
protests erupted.
They show an amateurish production portraying the
Prophet Mohammad as a womanizer, a homosexual and a child abuser. For
many Muslims, any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous and
caricatures or other characterisations have in the past provoked
protests all over the Muslim world.
An actress in the California production said the video
as it appeared bore no resemblance to the original filming. She had not
been aware it was about the Prophet Mohammad.
Among the assailants, Libyans identified units of a
heavily armed local Islamist group, Ansar al-Sharia, which sympathises
with al Qaeda and derides Libya's U.S.-backed bid for democracy.
Former Libya militant commander Noman Benotman, now
president of Britain's Quilliam think-tank, said Western officials were
investigating a possible link with a paramilitary training camp about
100 miles (160 km) south of the eastern Libyan town of Darnah.
U.S. officials said there were suggestions members of
al Qaeda's north-Africa based affiliate may have been involved.
Yemen, a key U.S. ally, is home to Al Qaeda in the
Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), viewed by Washington as the most dangerous
branch of the militant network established by Osama bin Laden.
The attacks could alter U.S. attitudes towards the
revolutions that toppled secularist authoritarian leaders in Egypt,
Libya and Tunisia and brought Islamists to power.
The violence also could have an impact on the closely
contested U.S. presidential race ahead of the November 6 election.
Republican Mitt Romney, Obama's challenger, criticized
the president's response to the crisis. He said the timing of a
statement from the U.S. embassy in Cairo denouncing "efforts by
misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims" made
Obama look weak as protesters were attacking U.S. missions.
Obama's campaign accused Romney of trying to score political points at a time of national tragedy.
The attack raised questions about the future U.S.
diplomatic presence in Libya, relations between Washington and Tripoli,
and the unstable security situation after Gaddafi's overthrow.
SAFE HOUSE
Stevens, a 52-year-old California-born diplomat who
spent a career operating in perilous places, became the first American
ambassador killed in an attack since Adolph Dubs, the U.S. envoy to
Afghanistan, died in a 1979 kidnapping attempt.
A Libyan doctor pronounced him dead of smoke
inhalation. U.S. information technology specialist Sean Smith and two
other Americans who have not yet been identified also were killed when a
squad of U.S. troops sent by helicopter from Tripoli to rescue the
diplomats from the safe house came under mortar attack.
"It was supposed to be a secret place and we were
surprised the armed groups knew about it," Captain Fathi al-Obeidi,
commander of a Libyan special operations unit ordered to meet the
Americans, said of the safe house.
Libyan leader Mohammed Magarief and Yemeni President
Mansour Hadi both apologised to the United States over the attacks and
Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Mursi condemned them on television
while also rejecting any "insult to the Prophet".
Many Muslim states focused their condemnation on the
film and will be concerned about preventing a repeat of the fallout seen
after publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons of the Prophet
Mohammad. This touched off riots in the Middle East, Africa and Asia in
2006 in which at least 50 people died.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai called the making of the
movie a "devilish act" but said he was certain those involved in its
production were a very small minority.
The U.S. embassy in Kabul appealed to Afghan leaders
for help in "maintaining calm" and Afghanistan ordered the YouTube site
shut down so Afghans would not be able to see the film.
SANAA/CAIRO (Reuters) - Demonstrators attacked the U.S.
embassies in Yemen and Egypt on Thursday in protest at a film they
consider blasphemous to Islam and American warships headed to Libya
after the death of the U.S. ambassador there in related violence earlier
in the week.
Hundreds of Yemeni demonstrators broke through the main
gate of the heavily fortified compound in eastern Sanaa, shouting "We
sacrifice ourselves for you, Messenger of God". Earlier they smashed
windows of security offices outside the embassy and burned cars.
"We can see a fire inside the compound and security
forces are firing in the air. The demonstrators are fleeing and then
charging back," one witness told Reuters. A security source said at
least 15 people were wounded, some by bullets. An embassy spokesman said
its personnel were reported to be safe.
In Egypt, protesters hurled stones at a police cordon
around the U.S. embassy in central Cairo after climbing into the embassy
and tearing down the American flag. The state news agency said 13
people were injured in violence which erupted on Wednesday night after
protests on Tuesday.
Islamist gunmen staged a military-style assault on the
U.S. consulate and a safe house refuge in Benghazi, eastern Libya on
Tuesday. The U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other
Americans died in the assault, carried out with guns, mortars and
grenades. Eight Libyans were injured.
U.S. President Barack Obama vowed to "bring to justice"
those responsible and the U.S. military moved two navy destroyers
towards the Libyan coast, in what a U.S. official said was a move to
give the administration flexibility for any future action against Libyan
targets.
Obama said security was being increased at U.S.
diplomatic posts around the globe and on Thursday the U.S. consulate in
Berlin was partially evacuated after an employee fell ill on opening a
suspicious envelope.
About 1,000 Bangladeshi Islamists tried to march on the
U.S. embassy in Dhaka after protests earlier in the week outside U.S.
missions in Tunisia, Sudan and Morocco.
The U.S. military dispatched a Marine Corps
anti-terrorist team to boost security in Libya, whose leader Muammar
Gaddafi was ousted in a U.S.-backed uprising last year.
The attack, which U.S. officials said may have been
planned in advance, came on the 11th anniversary of al Qaeda's attacks
on the United States on September 11, 2001.
FILM
The attackers were part of a mob blaming America for a
film they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad. Clips of the "Innocence of
Muslims," had been circulating on the Internet for weeks before the
protests erupted.
They show an amateurish production portraying the
Prophet Mohammad as a womanizer, a homosexual and a child abuser. For
many Muslims, any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous and
caricatures or other characterisations have in the past provoked
protests all over the Muslim world.
An actress in the California production said the video
as it appeared bore no resemblance to the original filming. She had not
been aware it was about the Prophet Mohammad.
Among the assailants, Libyans identified units of a
heavily armed local Islamist group, Ansar al-Sharia, which sympathises
with al Qaeda and derides Libya's U.S.-backed bid for democracy.
Former Libya militant commander Noman Benotman, now
president of Britain's Quilliam think-tank, said Western officials were
investigating a possible link with a paramilitary training camp about
100 miles (160 km) south of the eastern Libyan town of Darnah.
U.S. officials said there were suggestions members of
al Qaeda's north-Africa based affiliate may have been involved.
Yemen, a key U.S. ally, is home to Al Qaeda in the
Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), viewed by Washington as the most dangerous
branch of the militant network established by Osama bin Laden.
The attacks could alter U.S. attitudes towards the
revolutions that toppled secularist authoritarian leaders in Egypt,
Libya and Tunisia and brought Islamists to power.
The violence also could have an impact on the closely
contested U.S. presidential race ahead of the November 6 election.
Republican Mitt Romney, Obama's challenger, criticized
the president's response to the crisis. He said the timing of a
statement from the U.S. embassy in Cairo denouncing "efforts by
misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims" made
Obama look weak as protesters were attacking U.S. missions.
Obama's campaign accused Romney of trying to score political points at a time of national tragedy.
The attack raised questions about the future U.S.
diplomatic presence in Libya, relations between Washington and Tripoli,
and the unstable security situation after Gaddafi's overthrow.
SAFE HOUSE
Stevens, a 52-year-old California-born diplomat who
spent a career operating in perilous places, became the first American
ambassador killed in an attack since Adolph Dubs, the U.S. envoy to
Afghanistan, died in a 1979 kidnapping attempt.
A Libyan doctor pronounced him dead of smoke
inhalation. U.S. information technology specialist Sean Smith and two
other Americans who have not yet been identified also were killed when a
squad of U.S. troops sent by helicopter from Tripoli to rescue the
diplomats from the safe house came under mortar attack.
"It was supposed to be a secret place and we were
surprised the armed groups knew about it," Captain Fathi al-Obeidi,
commander of a Libyan special operations unit ordered to meet the
Americans, said of the safe house.
Libyan leader Mohammed Magarief and Yemeni President
Mansour Hadi both apologised to the United States over the attacks and
Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Mursi condemned them on television
while also rejecting any "insult to the Prophet".
Many Muslim states focused their condemnation on the
film and will be concerned about preventing a repeat of the fallout seen
after publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons of the Prophet
Mohammad. This touched off riots in the Middle East, Africa and Asia in
2006 in which at least 50 people died.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai called the making of the
movie a "devilish act" but said he was certain those involved in its
production were a very small minority.
The U.S. embassy in Kabul appealed to Afghan leaders
for help in "maintaining calm" and Afghanistan ordered the YouTube site
shut down so Afghans would not be able to see the film.
