* U.S. embassy in Yemen stormed, scuffles at Egypt embassy
* Violence follows killing of U.S. ambassador in Libya
* Libya says arrests four in investigation of attack
* U.S. sending Marines, two Navy destroyers toward Libya
SANAA/CAIRO, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Demonstrators attacked the
U.S. embassies in Yemen and Egypt on Thursday in protest at a
film they consider blasphemous to Islam, and the United States
sent warships toward Libya, where the U.S. ambassador was killed
in related violence this week.
In Libya, authorities said they had made four arrests in the
investigation into the attack that killed Ambassador Christopher
Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi on Tuesday.
U.S. President Barack Obama, facing a new foreign policy
crisis less than two months before seeking re-election, has
vowed to bring to justice those responsible for the Benghazi
attack, which U.S. officials said may have been planned in
advance - possibly by an al Qaeda-linked group.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington had
nothing to do with the crudely made film posted on the Internet,
which she called "disgusting and reprehensible."
The amateurish production, entitled the "Innocence of
Muslims," and originating in the United States, portrays 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 characterizations have in
the past provoked violent protests across the Muslim world.
Demonstrations spread further on Thursday, with U.S.
embassies again the targets of popular anger among Muslims
questioning why the United States has failed to take action
against the makers of the film.
Hundreds of Yemenis broke through the main gate of the
heavily fortified U.S. Embassy compound in Sanaa, shouting, "We
sacrifice ourselves for you, Messenger of God." They smashed
windows of security offices outside the embassy and burned cars.
A security source said at least 15 people were wounded, some
by gunfire, before the government ringed the area with troops.
In Egypt, protesters hurled stones at a police cordon around
the U.S. Embassy in Cairo after climbing into the compound and
tearing down the American flag. The state news agency said 13
people had been hurt in violence since late on Wednesday.
About 200 demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in
Kuwait and hoisted banners, one of which bread in English: "USA
stop the bullshit. Respect us."
In Bangladesh, Islamists tried to march on the U.S. Embassy
in Dhaka, and Iranian students protested in Tehran. Earlier in
the week, there were protests outside U.S. missions in Tunisia,
Morocco and Sudan and state-backed Islamic scholars in Sudan
have called a mass protest after Friday prayers.
The U.S. ambassador to Libya was killed during a protest
against the film when Islamists armed with guns, mortars and
grenades staged military-style assaults on the Benghazi mission.
A Libyan doctor said Stevens died of smoke inhalation. U.S.
information technology specialist Sean Smith also died at the
consulate, while two other Americans were killed when a squad of
security personnel sent by helicopter from Tripoli to rescue
diplomats from a safe house came under mortar attack.
Clinton identified the two as Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty,
former Navy SEALS who died trying to protect their colleagues.
In a statement, she said both Woods and Doherty had lengthy
experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. It did not say in what
capacity they were working in Benghazi.
In an interview with ABC News last month, Doherty, 42, said
he was working with the State Department on an intelligence
mission to round up and destroy shoulder-fired surface-to-air
missiles.
Thousand of those missiles disappeared in Libya after
Muammar Gaddafi's overthrow by in a U.S.-backed uprising last
year, prompting concerns they could end up in the hands of al
Qaeda militants.
FIRST U.S. AMBASSADOR KILLED SINCE 1979
Stevens, 52, had spent a career operating in perilous
places, mostly in the Arab world, and became the first American
ambassador killed in an attack since Adolph Dubs, the U.S. envoy
to Afghanistan, died in a 1979 kidnapping attempt.
Tuesday's incident, on what was the 11th anniversary of al
Qaeda's attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, has
created a worrying foreign policy crisis for Obama ahead of his
re-election bid.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Colorado on Thursday, Obama
said he had ordered his administration to do whatever was
necessary to protect Americans abroad and that aides had been in
contact with other governments "to let them know they've got a
responsibility to protect our citizens."
The U.S. military has dispatched two destroyers toward the
Libyan coast, in what an official said was a move to give the
administration flexibility for any future action. The USS
Laboon, was already in position and the other destroyer, the USS
McFaul, was at least a day away, a U.S. official said.
The U.S. military also sent a Marine Corps anti-terrorist
team to boost security in Libya.
Republican Mitt Romney, Obama's challenger, criticised the
president's response to the crisis earlier this week, saying it
was disgraceful to be seen to be apologizing for American values
of free speech.
Obama's campaign accused Romney of trying to score political
points at a time of national tragedy and the challenger also
provoked some criticism from within his own party.
Campaigning on Thursday, Romney stopped short of repeating
the charge, but said that under Obama the United States seemed
to be at the mercy of world events rather than shaping them, and
argued for a stronger military, at a time when U.S. armed forces
are facing an unprecedented budget squeeze.
The administration again sought to calm Muslim tensions on
Thursday.
Clinton said Washington rejected the film's message
absolutely, and added, "It appears to have a deeply cynical
purpose: to denigrate a great religion and provoke rage."
At the same time, Clinton noted U.S. religious tolerance and
commitment to freedom of speech and said there was no
justification for violence.
"I know it is hard for some people to understand why the
United States cannot or does not just prevent these kinds of
reprehensible videos from ever seeing the light of day," she
said. "I would note that in today's world, with today's
technologies, that is virtually impossible.
"But even if it were possible, our country does have a long
tradition of free expression which is enshrined in our
constitution and our law. And we do not stop individual citizens
from expressing their views no matter how distasteful they may
be."
AL QAEDA LINK SEEN
Among the assailants in Benghazi, Libyans identified units
of a heavily armed local Islamist group, Ansar al-Sharia, which
sympathizes 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 Derna, near the Egyptian border.
U.S. officials said there were suggestions members of al
Qaeda's North Africa-based affiliate may have been involved.
Libya's new prime minister, Mustafa Abu Shagour, confirmed
arrests had been made and more could be expected.
"We don't know if they are affiliated with a particular
group or not, there are a lot of suspicions, but ... we have to
go through with the investigation and find out who these people
are and if they belong to a particular group, then we have to
deal with that group," he said.
"We ... assure the people that we are going after them, that
we are going to bring them to justice and they have to be
punished for their act. This is not acceptable."
A spokesman for Ansar al-Sharia denied involvement in the
attack and blamed the violence on firing on the protesters by
consulate staff.
"It was a peaceful protest, and the firing on the protesters
inflamed the situation and gave it a different course," Hani
Mansouri told a news conference in Benghazi.
At the same time, Mansouri said the United States should
have had the wisdom to evacuate its ambassador on the Sept. 11
anniversary as a precaution.
Yemen, a key U.S. ally, is home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula, or AQAP, viewed by Washington as the most dangerous
branch of the militant network established by Osama bin Laden.
Clashes near the U.S. Embassy there flared up on and off but
died down as night fell. Residents living nearby said they
feared more violent protests after Friday prayers.
"It is a dangerous situation," one resident told Reuters. "I
cannot wait until the morning to move my family to another
neighborhood until the situation is totally calm."
In Nigeria, the government put police on high alert and
stepped up security around all foreign missions, also fearing an
Islamist backlash, possibly after Friday prayers.
An actress in the California production that has provoked
the unrest said the video as it appeared bore no resemblance to
the original filming. She said she had not been aware it was
about the Prophet Mohammad.
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. That touched off riots in the Middle East,
Africa and Asia in 2006 in which at least 50 people were killed.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has 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 has 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.
YouTube, owned by Google Inc, said it would not remove
the clip but had blocked access in Egypt and Libya.
Libyan leader Mohammed Magarief and Yemeni President Mansour
Hadi both apologized 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."
Russian President Vladimir Putin, a sharp critic the Western
military intervention in Libya and of Western backing for
Syria's rebels, called Stevens' death a tragedy and said Western
support for rebels in Arab states was causing chaos.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed for calm in
North Africa and the Middle East.
"Nothing justifies such killings and attacks," Ban's press
office said, adding he condemned "the hateful film that appears
to have been deliberately designed to sow bigotry and
bloodshed."
