US deploys forces as Muslim anger spreads

Washington said it was deploying forces to cope with violence in as many as 18 different locations as deadly Muslim anger spreads over a US-made movie that mocks Islam.

Bottles, shoes and other objects were hurled during the clashes

Two US marines were killed in Afghanistan when insurgents armed with guns and rockets stormed a heavily fortified air base late on Friday in an attack that the Taliban militia said was to avenge the film.

The attack on Camp Bastion in Helmand province, which continued until yesterday morning, was a major security breach at a base where Britain’s Prince Harry is stationed and has been the target of specific death threats.

It came after at least six protesters died in Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon and Sudan on Friday as local police battled to defend American missions from mobs of stone-throwers.

Symbols of US influence in cities across the Muslim world came under attack – embassies and schools as well as fast food chains – as protesters vented their fury at the low-budget American-made You Tube film, Innocence of Muslims.

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said Washington was configuring its forces to be able to cope with widespread violence following its deployment of Marine counter-terrorism units to Libya and Yemen and its stationing of two destroyers off the North African coast.

“We have to be prepared in the event that these demonstrations get out of control,” Panetta told Foreign Policy magazine.

He did not offer any specifics. But the magazine said that the Pentagon was discussing, but had not yet decided, whether to send a third platoon of 50 specially trained Marines to protect the US embassy in Khartoum.

Guards on the roof of the embassy fired warning shots on Friday as the compound was breached by protesters waving Islamic banners, after earlier ransacking parts of the British and German missions in the Sudanese capital.

The US embassy compounds in Egypt and Yemen have also been breached in the past week, and on Tuesday the US Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed when a mob torched the consulate in Benghazi.

Panetta said on Friday that it was still too early to say exactly what happened in Benghazi where there have been suggestions that Al-Qaeda sympathisers rather than angry Muslim protesters may have been responsible.

“It’s something that’s under assessment and under investigation, to determine just exactly what happened here,” he said.

The assault on the consulate came on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US and the head of Libya’s national assembly, Mohammed al-Megaryef, on Friday blamed Al-Qaeda as he laid a bouquet of flowers in front of the devastated mission.

Police in Sydney fired pepper spray to contain protesters trying to enter the building housing the US consulate yesterday, as Australia became the latest focus of disturbances.

Bottles, shoes and other objects were hurled during the clashes with police which resulted in eight arrests, with six police officers injured as the unexpected protest brought parts of the city to a standstill. Shoppers looked on in surprise as protesters, including children, shouted “Down, down USA” and waved banners such as “Behead all those who insult the prophet”.

Hundreds also demonstrated in Indonesia and the Maldives.

In Somalia, the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab militia, which controls large swathes of the country called on Muslims to launch revenge attacks on Western targets.

“US President Barack Obama urged Americans not to be disheartened by images of anti-American violence, expressing confidence that the ideals of freedom America stands for would ultimately prevail.

“I know the images on our televisions are disturbing,” Obama said in his weekly radio and internet address. “But let us never forget that for every angry mob, there are millions who yearn for the freedom, and dignity, and hope that our flag represents.”

Obama said his administration was doing everything it could to protect Americans serving abroad.