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Karzai cancels Norway visit; Yemen protestors chant 'death to America'
on 13/09/2012 11:50:58
The protesters breached the usually tight security around the embassy and reached the compound grounds but did not enter the main building housing the offices.
Once inside the compound, they brought down the US flag, burned it and replaced it with a black banner bearing Islam's declaration of faith - "There is no God but Allah."
Before storming the grounds, demonstrators removed the embassy's sign on the outer wall, set tyres ablaze and pelted the compound with rocks.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has cancelled an official visit to Norway amid concerns over the Mideast riots.
His spokesman said the trip will be held at a later date. He did not say why the trip has been postponed.
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Mr Karzai postponed the trip because he felt he needed to stay at home in light of the serious events in some Arab countries.
He was to have travelled to Oslo late yesterday to sign an agreement of strategic partnership.
It was similar to an attack on the US Embassy in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Tuesday night.
A mob of Libyans also attacked the US consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday, killing American Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
In Egypt, protesters were clashing with police near the US Embassy in Cairo for the third day in a row.
The violence has raised worries that further protests could break out around the Muslim world as anger spreads over the film.
Yemeni security forces who rushed to the scene fired in the air and used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators and were eventually able to drive them out of the compound. It was not immediately clear whether anyone was inside the embassy at the time of the attack.
The Yemeni Embassy in Washington condemned the attack and vowed to ensure the safety of foreign diplomats and to step up security measures around their missions in the country.
Yemen is home to al-Qaida's most active branch and the United States is the main foreign supporter of the Yemeni government's counterterrorism campaign. The government on Tuesday announced that al-Qaida's No 2 leader in Yemen was killed in an apparent US airstrike, a major blow to the terror network.
The film Innocence of Muslims came to attention in Egypt after its trailer was dubbed into Arabic and posted on YouTube.
The video-sharing website blocked access to it yesterday. The trailer depicts Mohammed as a fraud, a womaniser and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.