Muslim protests target UK embassy

Sep 14 2012

Police in Sudan are confronting a protest outside the British Embassy in Khartoum, according to the Foreign Office, as protests spread across the Muslim world over an anti-Islam film.

The FCO said police are at the scene outside its mission, which neighbours Germany's embassy in Khartoum East. The ministry could not immediately confirm how many staff were inside the mission, or whether they are all accounted for.

The demonstration in Sudan came as thousands of protesters across the Muslim world marked Friday's weekly prayers by condemning the US-produced film, which denigrates the Prophet Mohammed.

Thousands in Kashmir burned US flags and called president Barack Obama a "terrorist", while the senior government cleric reportedly demanded Americans leave the volatile Indian-controlled region immediately.

At least 15,000 people took part in more than two dozen protests across Kashmir, chanting "Down with America" and "Down with Israel" in some of the largest anti-American demonstrations. US and Israeli flags were burned at many of the protests across the Muslim-majority region. Hundreds of lawyers in the main city of Srinagar stopped work and marched out of court and into the streets in protest.

"The US citizens visiting Kashmir should leave immediately as the sentiments of the Muslims have been hurt by these pictures," Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad, Kashmir's state-appointed cleric, was quoted as telling the Kashmir Reader, an English-language daily paper.

In response, US Embassy officials reiterated its call for citizens to stay away from Kashmir, a volatile territory where many oppose India's rule. Police said they were investigating the cleric's statement.

In Yemen, security forces shot live rounds in the air and fired tear gas at a crowd of around 2,000 protesters trying to march to the US Embassy in the capital Sanaa. That protest came the day after hundreds of protesters chanting "Death to America" stormed the embassy compound and burned the American flag. The embassy said no one was harmed. Yemen's president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, quickly apologised to the United States and vowed to track down the culprits.

Hundreds more protesters - some shouting "Death to America" - held a protest in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. It is unclear who organised the demonstration in the Marko area of Nangarhar province, between Jalalabad and the Pakistan border, but the crowd reportedly called on Afghan president Hamid Karzai to cut relations with the US.

In Indonesia, about 200 people chanted "Death to Jews" and "Death to America" in a largely peaceful protest outside the heavily guarded US Embassy, and about 20 protesters outside the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, shouted "Allahu akbar" and handed reporters a letter addressed to the American ambassador which expressed their anger over the movie and called for greater respect for religions.