US Boosts Security at Embassies Amid Fears of Bigger Friday Protests

Cairo. The US boosted security at its embassies amid fears
that more anti-American violence sparked by a film mocking Islam
could erupt after Friday’s Muslim prayers across the Middle East and
North Africa.

Four people died in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Thursday as police
fired live rounds and tear gas to try to disperse an angry crowd of
hundreds of protesters trying to storm the US mission.

The protests came as US and Libyan officials probed an attack on
the consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi that killed the
ambassador and three other US officials on Tuesday, amid growing
speculation it was the work of extremist militants rather than just
demonstrators.

Two of the four Americans killed in the assault were former
members of the elite Navy SEALs officials identified as Tyrone Woods
and Glen Doherty.

The harrowing attack also left Ambassador Chris
Stevens and Sean Smith, an information management officer, dead.

The US embassy in Cairo was under siege for a fourth day after
protests spread to several countries and territories, including
Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, Israel and the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Kuwait,
Sudan and Tunisia.

Washington sought to keep a lid on the demonstrations by spelling
out that the controversial film that set off the violence was made
privately by a small group of individuals with no official backing.

“Let me state very clearly — and I hope it is obvious —
that the United States government had absolutely nothing to do with
this video,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared in
condemning the “disgusting and reprehensible” video.

As enraged demonstrators again took to the streets, Islamist
groups in several countries called for greater protests after Friday
prayers, a prospect the White House admitted it feared as the United
States tightened security at diplomatic missions around the globe.

“We are watching very closely for developments that could
lead to more protests,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

Egypt’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood called for nationwide action
following evening prayers.
And in Jordan, Salafist militants have said they plan to
demonstrate outside the US embassy in Amman after midday prayers.

Libyan Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagur told AFP in an exclusive
interview that a “big advance” had been made in the probe
into the Benghazi attack following several arrests.

“We have some names and some photographs,” he said.

Violence spreads to Yemen

A security official in Yemen said that in addition to those killed
in the clashes, another four people had been wounded, eight of them
seriously.

The unrest lasted from morning until late evening.
Troops deployed on the rooftops of buildings around the US mission
in Sanaa and police used water cannon and fired warning shots to
drive out protesters who had breached the perimeter wall.

Witnesses said they saw three vehicles being torched by a group of
demonstrators that gained access to the compound through an unguarded
security gate.

Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi apologized to US President
Barack Obama for the acts of a “mob” and ordered an
investigation.

Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Morsi has warned against
resorting to violence but his angry statements about the film and
failure to immediately apologize over the storming of the US embassy
have Washington on edge.

Violence rocked the Egyptian capital, where police fired tear gas
to disperse protests outside the embassy by stone- and
bottle-throwing demonstrators.
A total of 224 people were injured, the Egyptian health ministry
said.

The violence began on Tuesday night, when protesters stormed the
Cairo embassy compound, tearing down the Stars and Stripes and
replacing it with a black Islamic flag.

Obama acknowledged late on Wednesday that ties with the new Egypt
were a “work in progress” and seemed to be signal a review
of its status, by saying Cairo could neither be considered an ally
nor an enemy.

Fears of bigger Friday protests

Amid the mounting protests, Russian President Vladimir Putin
warned the Middle East “may descend into chaos.”

The crisis also reverberated in the US presidential race as
Republican challenger Mitt Romney insisted that US power was vital in
the region but halted his criticism of Obama’s handling of the
crisis.

The White House hopeful sparked a furor on Tuesday when he
offered a quick and blunt rebuke of the Obama administration’s
efforts to tamp down the rapidly escalating protests.

The catalyst for the bloody conflagration in the Muslim world was
an amateurish film denigrating the Prophet Mohammed and linked to
evangelical and Coptic Christians in the United States.

The suspected producer is Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a 55-year-old
Copt living in California. It was promoted on the websites of two
other Americans, extremist Christian pastor Terry Jones and another
Copt, Washington-based lawyer Morris Sadek.

Both the State Department and the White House say there is nothing
they can do to stop individuals producing inflammatory material
because of freedom of speech laws enshrined in the First Amendment of
the US constitution.

UN leader Ban Ki-moon condemned the “hateful” anti-Islam
film as deliberately intended to incite bigotry.


Agence France-Presse