Violent protests across Middle East target embassies, Pope visit to Lebanon

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Anti-American protests erupted across the Middle East on Friday, following week-long demonstrations outside of several U.S. embassies and a Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya that left the U.S. ambassador and three others dead.

Protesters reportedly broke into the German Embassy in Sudan -- pulling down its emblem and raising the Islamic flag -- and demonstrators in Lebanon burned Kentucky Fried Chicken and Arby's restaurants while chanting against the pope's visit to Lebanon.

At least one protester was killed and 25 were injured in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli after clashes between police and protesters over an anti-Islam film, security officials said.

In Egypt, protesters in Ciaro's Tahrir Square could be seen carrying a 4-foot-tall poster of Usama bin Laden, and graffiti reportedly found on the U.S. Embassy there read: "Take care America. We have 1.5 billion bin Ladens."

In Sudan, police fired tear gas to prevent protesters from storming the U.S. Embassy outside Khartoum, according to eye witness accounts. About 5,000 demonstrators arrived in buses and cars to gather on the main street outside the embassy, Reuters reported. 

Several hundred protesters in Cairo, meanwhile, demonstrated blocks away from the U.S. Embassy as the president went on state TV and appealed to Muslims to protect embassies, trying to patch up strained relations with the United States.

The protesters, who gathered after weekly Muslim Friday prayers, tore up an American flag and waved a black, Islamist flag through the streets. When protesters tried to move toward the embassy, they were confronted by lines of police who fired tear gas.

"With our soul, our blood, we will avenge you, our Prophet," they chanted.

Ahead of the clashes, Islamist President Mohammed Morsi spoke for more than seven minutes on state TV, his most direct public move to contain protests since an angry crowd assaulted the embassy Tuesday night, scaling its walls and tearing down the American flag.

"It is required by our religion to protect our guests and their homes and places of work," Morsi said. "So I call on all to consider this, consider the law, and not attack embassies, consulates, diplomatic missions or Egyptian property that is private or public."

He denounced the killing of American ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, who died in an attack Tuesday night on the U.S. Consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi along with three other Americans.

"This is something we reject and Islam rejects. To God, the attack on a person to Allah is bigger an attack on the Kaaba," he said, referring to Islam's holiest site in Mecca.

The region is bracing itself for more protests after traditional mid-day Friday prayers over the anti-Islam film produced in the United States called "Innocence of Muslims." The movie ridicules the Prophet Muhammad, portraying him as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester.

Morsi's own Muslim Brotherhood group has called for peaceful protests to denounce the film.

A firebrand cleric with the beard of a Salafi Muslim, known for their ultraconservative views, blasted the film and in his sermon in Cairo's Tahrir Square said it was upon Muslims to defend Islam and its prophet.

Protesters have been clashing in Cairo with police since the unrest Tuesday night. More than 240 people have been injured in the clashes, including a number of policemen, and 31 people have been arrested.

In Sudan, a prominent sheikh urged people on state radio to protest outside the main mosque in Khartoum. Sheikh Mohammed Jizouly said protesters would then move to the German Embassy in the city center to protest alleged anti-Muslim scrawling on mosques in Berlin and then to the US embassy, just outside the capital, to protest the film.

"America has long been an enemy to Islam and to Sudan," Jizouly said.

In Israel, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police have boosted the number of officers patrolling east Jerusalem and Jerusalem's old city to thwart potentially violent protests following Muslim prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site.

Protesters are expected to march to the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem.

A small, peaceful demonstration was held Friday outside the U.S. Embassy in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

A prominent cleric in Indonesia has urged Muslims there to remain calm despite their anger about the film. But Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, a branch of the international network that advocates a worldwide Islamic state, on its website blamed the U.S. government for allowing the film to be produced and released, calling it "an act of barbarism that cannot go unpunished."

Meanwhile, a Libyan airport official said all flights to and from the eastern city of Benghazi were canceled due to security concerns. The nearest airport is 200 kilometers away. The airport official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

Benghazi is where the attack on the U.S. consulate took place Tuesday.

Click for the latest updates from the State Department on Twitter.

Fox News' Leland Vittert and the Associated Press contributed to this report.


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Violence spreads across Middle East over anti-Islam film

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The Obama administration is bracing for the possibility of more violent anti-American protests after Friday's weekly prayers, traditionally a time of protest in the Middle East and North Africa, following  protests outside of several U.S. embassies and a Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya that left four, including the U.S. ambassador to the country, dead. 

All of the U.S.' diplomatic missions overseas were on high alert Friday, and Secretary of State Clinton issued a statement strongly denouncing the anti-Islam video that is purportedly the cause of the violence as the administration sought to pre-empt further turmoil at its embassies and consulates.

"The United States government had absolutely nothing to do with this video," Clinton said before a meeting with the foreign minister of Morocco at the State Department. "We absolutely reject its content and message."

In Indonesia, the largest Muslim majority nation in the world, leaders and a prominent cleric urged citizens to remain calm despite anger over the film. Meanwhile, Jakarta police spokesman Col. Rikwanto tells The Associated Press the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta did not request any increased security, but 250 riot police have been put on alert ahead of expected demonstrations.

The embassy issued an email to American citizens saying a demonstration with an estimated 300 people was expected after Friday prayers.

The Obama administration was caught by surprise by the ferocity of the Sept. 11 storming of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed the American ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three other embassy staff members. 

Libyan officials said Thursday they believe the attack in Benghazi was a planned operation by heavily armed militants that may have been timed to mark the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the U.S., and that the militants used civilian protesters as cover for their action.

In Egypt, protests continued into the night Thursday for a third day. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters and the two sides pelted each other with rocks. But unlike Tuesday, when protesters climbed the embassy's walls and several of them breached its grounds, police kept the protesters away from the compound.

The Health Ministry said 224 people, including policemen, were wounded, but they mostly suffered minor injuries. Twelve protesters have been arrested.

In Yemen's capital of Sanaa, hundreds of protesters chanting "death to America" and "death to Israel" stormed the U.S. Embassy compound and burned the American flag on Thursday.

Yemen's president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, quickly apologized to the U.S. and vowed to track down the culprits, just as Libya's president did. Egypt's Islamist President Mohammad Morsi, who had been slow to speak out on Tuesday's assault on the embassy in Cairo, promised Thursday that his government would not allow attacks on diplomatic missions.

In Iraq, several hundred Shiite hardliners protested Thursday in Baghdad's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, and the leader of an Iranian-backed Shiite militia, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, threatened anti-U.S. attacks.

In Iran, about 50 protesters shouted, "Death to America" outside the Swiss Embassy, which looks after U.S. interests there. Riot police kept the crowd at bay.

The State Department said on Twitter that U.S. diplomatic posts in Kuwait, Jordan, and Oman would be also on alert for possible protests going into Friday. 

The Obama administration sent two warships to the Libyan coast and 50 Marines were sent to the Libyan capital of Tripoli to help with security. Obama told voters campaigning Thursday in Colorado that the Benghazi Consulate killers will be brought to justice and that protecting  Americans serving abroad is one of his highest priorities.

The spreading violence comes as outrage grows over a movie called "Innocence of Muslims" that was produced by anti-Islam campaigners in the U.S. and mocks Islam's Prophet Muhammad. 

The amateur-like video was produced in the U.S. and excerpted on YouTube. It depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.

Click for the latest updates from the State Department on Twitter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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Violence spreads across Middle East over anti-Islam film

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Anti-American protests have erupted in the Middle East, resulting in violent embassy protests around the Middle East and heightened security at U.S. facilities abroad.

U.S. officials are bracing for possible protests across the Muslim world over an anti-Islam film blamed on the attack in Libya that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

With angry protests already occurring in Egypt and Yemen, the U.S. has put all of its diplomatic missions on high alert. And Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has denounced the anti-Islam video in hopes of pre-empting further turmoil.

In Libya on Tuesday, the storming of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi killed the American ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three other embassy staff members. Libyan officials say the attack in Benghazi was a planned operation by heavily armed militants that may have been timed to mark the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on the U.S. and that the militants used civilian protesters as cover for their action.

In Egypt, angry youths climbed the walls of the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday in Cairo and brought down the flag. Protesters clashed Thursday with police near the U.S. Embassy. Police used tear gas to disperse he protesters and the two sides pelted each other with rocks. But unlike Tuesday, when protesters climbed the embassy's walls and several of them breached its grounds, police kept the protesters away from the compound.

The Health Ministry said 224 people, including policemen, were wounded, but they mostly suffered light injuries. Twelve protesters have been arrested.

The clashes continued well into the night.

In Yemen's capital of Sanaa, hundreds of protesters chanting "death to America" and "death to Israel" stormed the U.S. Embassy compound and burned the American flag on Thursday.

Yemen's president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, quickly apologized to the U.S. and vowed to track down the culprits, just as Libya's president did. Egypt's Islamist President Mohammad Morsi, who had been slow to speak out on Tuesday's assault on the embassy in Cairo, promised Thursday that his government would not allow attacks on diplomatic missions.

In Iraq, several hundred Shiite hardliners protested Thursday in Baghdad's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, and the leader of an Iranian-backed Shiite militia, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, threatened anti-U.S. attacks. And in Iran, about 50 protesters shouted, "Death to America" outside the Swiss Embassy, which looks after U.S. interests there. Riot police kept the crowd at bay.

The U.S. State Department said via Twitter that Kuwait, Jordan, and Oman would be on alert for possible protests:

Travel - State Dept @TravelGov
#Travel #Kuwait possible protests in front of the US embassy Kuwait over the next few days, incluidng this evening at approximately 8 pm.

Travel - State Dept @TravelGov
#Travel #Jordan possible demonstrations near the embassy this evening & tomorrow. #AmCits should exercise caution & enroll in STEP for info.

Travel - State Dept @TravelGov
#Travel #Oman demonstrations have begun in front of US Embassy Musct. #AmCits should exercise caution & enroll in STEP for more info.

Click for more from the State Department on Twitter.

President Barack Obama ordered increased security at American embassies and consulates around the world Thursday following the attack and urged its citizens abroad to be vigilant. His administration sent two warships to the Libyan coast, ready to respond to any mission ordered by the president, and 50 Marines were sent to the Libyan capital of Tripoli to help with security. Obama told voters campaigning Thursday in Colorado that the Benghazi Consulate killers will be brought to justice and that protecting Americans serving abroad is one of his highest priorities.

The spreading violence comes as outrage grows over a movie called "Innocence of Muslims" produced by anti-Islam campaigners in the U.S. that mocked Islam's Prophet Muhammad. The amateurish video was produced in the U.S. and excerpted on YouTube. It depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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