Wednesday 22 May 2019


US sends marines to Yemen embassy as turmoil spreads across Muslim world

American Marines were deployed to protect the country's embassy in Yemen on Friday as US diplomatic missions across the Middle East prepared for more protests.

Hundreds of youths fought police outside the US embassy in Cairo overnight and another demonstration gathered in Tahrir Square in the morning. The Muslim Brotherhood has called for a "million man march" in Egypt's capital after prayers on Friday. So far, however, there is no sign of large numbers gathering.

Still reeling from the killing of Chris Stevens, the ambassador to Libya, and three of his colleagues, Washington is trying to protect its diplomats from protests that have now taken place in six countries in the Muslim world. They were sparked by a YouTube film made in California that defames the Prophet Mohammed.

Aside from the killings in Libya, the most serious incidents have taken place in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, where four people were killed and dozens injured outside the US embassy. Protesters were briefly able to scale the protective walls and enter the mission.

On Thursday, more than 200 people were injured as Egyptian police fended off attempts by stone-throwing protesters to breach the perimeter of the US embassy in Cairo, as they had done on Wednesay when the American flag above the building was set on fire.

Yemeni protesters try to break through the US embassy in Sana'a during a protest over the film

Protests took place outside US missions in Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and Bangladesh. About 500 Iranians chanting “death to America” tried to converge on the Swiss embassy, which handles US interests in the absence of formal diplomatic relations, while demonstrators burnt American flags on the streets of Baghdad.

Each demonstration involved only hundreds of people, but with anger mounting over what is being seen as the latest Western insult of Islam there were predictions that the worst is still to come.

President Barack Obama said he had ordered his administration to do whatever is necessary to protect Americans abroad. Speaking at a re-election campaign rally in Colorado, he and his aides had been in contact with other governments “to let them know they’ve got a responsibility to protect our citizens.”

Yemeni men break a window of the US embassy in Sana'a, during a protest against the American film "Innocence of Muslims"

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, postponed a visit to Norway to deal with the threat, while Nigeria and the Philippines stepped up security outside foreign embassies.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, attempted to quell the rage by distancing the United States from the film, a barnyard production of mysterious provenance.

“To us, to me personally, this video is disgusting and reprehensible,” she said. “It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose, to denigrate a great religion and to provoke rage.

“The United States government has absolutely nothing to do with this video.

We absolutely reject its content and message.”

But with Mr Obama’s hopes of foresting more positive feelings towards the United States in the Arab world appearing to have failed, it was unclear whether Mrs Clinton’s words would have much of an impact.

The scenes at the US embassy in Yemen on Thursday suggested they would not. As clouds of black smoke filled the sky, hundreds of Yemenis stormed the mission, easily overwhelming local security forces guarding a rear entrance.

Shouting “God is Great”, they burnt an American flag, set fire to tires, destroyed at least five cars and attempted to loot embassy offices before they were dispersed by police who, according to witnesses, were initially overwhelmed by protesters.

Unlike the assault on the US consulate in Benghazi, which came under a ferocious rocket-propelled grenade attack, the protesters in Sana’a were not armed.

A vehicle burns during clashes outside the US embassy in Cairo, Egypt, as part of widespread anger across the Muslim world.

But there were suspicions that at least part of the protest was orchestrated rather than spontaneous after a group of men wearing masks arrived to join a protest that had initially been peaceful.

Although the protests across the region could accrue a momentum of their own, some diplomats have expressed concern that Islamist militants are seeking to manipulate demonstrations in the hope of sparking violence.

For all their vitriol, the protesters represent a minority. Many Arabs have expressed their opposition to the film but are far more outraged by the violence it has ostensibly triggered.

“The film is an insult to the Prophet, but this is unbelievable,” said a shopkeeper whose store was adjacent to the US embassy in Sana’a.

“We’re really struggling to understand how something like this could get so out of hand.’

Hisham Matar, the celebrated Anglo-Libyan novelist, said that the majority in Benghazi shared similar views. He reported a deep sense of shame in the city, where demonstrations - this time appearing genuinely spontaneous - erupted to denounce the killing of the American diplomats.

Officials in Libya said an investigation had been opened into the attack and reported that “several” people had been arrested.

The president of Yemen and Libyan leaders were quick to apologise to the United States, although Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s Islamist president, has been criticised for being slower off the mark.

After a day of silence, Mr Morsi finally condemned the attack on the US embassy in Cairo.

“We condemn strongly ... all those who launch such provocations and who stand behind that hatred,” he said.

“But at the same time we say this cannot be taken as a justification for attacking embassies or consulates.

“The Egyptian state is responsible for protecting embassies and consulates, and the Egyptian people will not engage in these ... unlawful acts.”

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