Egyptian police today cleared out protesters who have been clashing with security forces for the past four days near the US Embassy as most cities around the Muslim world reported calm a day after at least six people were killed in a wave of angry protests over an anti-Islam film.
Security forces erected a concrete wall blocking the main street leading to the embassy in Cairo after finally dispersing several hundred youths who had been battling with police, trying to get to the building. They also cleared nearby Tahrir Square where protests were being held.
Muslims angry over the film produced in the US denigrating the Prophet Muhammad took to the streets on Friday in more than 20 countries from the Middle East to South East Asia.
In most countries, protests were peaceful, if vehement. But deadly clashes erupted in several places, protesters in Sudan and Tunisia tried to storm Western embassies, an American fast-food restaurant was set ablaze in Lebanon, and international peacekeepers were attacked in the Sinai.
In Cairo, the clashes Friday brought the first Egyptian to be killed in Tahrir Square protests since Islamist President Mohammed Morsi was elected and took office this summer. A 36-year-old died from wounds from rubber bullets, his family and doctors at a Cairo hospital said. Weeping relatives at the hospital held his 25-day-old daughter, named Ganna, or Heaven.
Two demonstrators died in Sudan, two died in Tunisia and another was killed in Lebanon. On Thursday, four Yemeni protesters were killed in protests that turned violent at the US Embassy in Sanaa.
The only report today of violence linked to the film came from Sydney, Australia, where riot police clashed with about 200 protesters at the US consulate.
Ten Network television news showed a policeman knocked unconscious as the mostly male crowd hurled bottles and other projectiles. Police used pepper spray against the protesters, who chanted "Obama, Obama, we love Osama" and waved placards saying "Behead all those who insult the Prophet." Six police were injured and two protesters were treated for police dog bites police said in a statement.
The anger was sparked by a film titled Innocence of Muslims, which was produced in the United States and mocked the Prophet Muhammad by showing him as a fraud, a womaniser, a homosexual and a madman. A 14-minute excerpt from the film has been described by US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton as "an awful internet video that we had nothing to do with".
President Barack Obama said Washington would "stand fast" against attacks on US embassies around the world. He spoke at a sombre ceremony paying tribute to four Americans - including US ambassador Chris Stevens - killed Tuesday when the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was stormed by militants. The attackers are suspected of using protests of the anti-Muslim film to stage an assault on the 11th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Also on Tuesday, protesters swarmed up the walls of the US Embassy in Cairo, bringing down an American flag and replacing it briefly with an Islamist banner.
For days afterward, the protesters were in stone-throwing clashes with police firing tear gas. On Friday, the crowd of protesters grew to around 2,000 in the melee near the embassy and several large hotels that overlook the Nile River. The dwindling group of protesters was chased away this morning.