FURY: Rioters bust the windows of the American Embassy in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, yesterday. (Reuters)
Hundreds of rioters stormed the US Embassy in Yemen yesterday, hurling logs and rocks to shatter the mission’s bulletproof glass — all while chanting, “Death to America,” and “Death to Israel.”
Oblivious to the US role in ending the reigns of despots in the region, the mob raided the compound in Sanaa after rushing past Yemeni guards at checkpoints and clambering over the walls.
Armed with iron bars, they ripped the embassy’s sign off the wall and burned the US flag, replacing it with a black banner that read, “There is no god but Allah.”
Police fatally shot one protester and wounded 34. The crowd was dispersed with tear gas after 45 minutes.
The melee was one of several across the Middle East protesting a US-made film portraying the prophet Mohammed as a war-mongering child molester.
The latest wave of protests, including new riots in Cairo, come days after Tuesday’s armed assault on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans — an attack diplomats say could have been avoided.
London’s Independent newspaper reported that the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before the Benghazi attack that American missions might be targeted. But diplomats weren’t warned to go on high alert and “lockdown,” under which movement is severely restricted.
US officials denied the story.
“This report is absolutely wrong,” said Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the director of National Intelligence.
“We are not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the US post in Benghazi was planned or imminent.”
Meanwhile yesterday:
* The White House tried to spin remarks made by President Obama a day earlier that Egypt was not an ally. Spokesman Jay Carney called the word “ally” a “legal term of art.”
* It emerged that a member of the Libyan security forces might have been a mole who helped the Benghazi killers.
A Libyan official said the attackers targeted a safe house in the compound, suggesting an insider tipped them off to its location.
* Obama said he had ordered his administration to do whatever necessary to protect Americans abroad — adding he had told other governments “they’ve got a responsibility to protect our citizens.”
* Libyan authorities made four arrests in the Benghazi attack. “More are under way as we speak,” Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagur said.
* Stevens’ relatives flew to Washington, DC, from California to collect his body, as US officials probed whether he died at the hands of an alQaeda-linked group.
* Attorney General Eric Holder cut short a trip to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey and will return to DC to manage the criminal probe into the deaths of Stevens and the others.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton denounced the film, called “Innocence of Muslims,” and the violence it ignited.
“To us, to me personally, this video is disgusting and reprehensible. It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose to denigrate a great religion and promote rage,” she said. “But, as I said yesterday, this is no justification, none at all, for responding to this video with violence.”
“We condemn the violence that has resulted in the strongest terms. It is especially wrong for violence to be directed against diplomatic missions.”
US intelligence officials warned the violence could spread to the United States.
In Libya, officials now believe the attack on the Benghazi consulate, which also killed Sean Smith, a State Department information management officer, and former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, was a well-planned two-phase operation, possibly by the alQaeda-affiliated group Ansar al-Sharia.
US officials confirmed that a special unit of 50 Marines was dispatched to Libya, and the Navy sent two warships armed with Tomahawk missiles. The USS Laboon, which was in Crete, was hours away yesterday from position. The USS McFaul is days away.
In Cairo, police used tear gas on a crowd that swarmed the US Embassy for the third day in a row.
In Iraq, supporters of leading anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demanded the Iraqi government shut the US Embassy in Baghdad over the film.
In Iran, 50 protesters shouted, “Death to America” outside the Embassy of Switzerland, which handles US diplomatic relations.
About 200 people peacefully protested outside the US Embassy in Kuwait, shouting, “God is great.”
Islamists in Bangladesh tried to march on the US Embassy in the capital city of Dhaka but were kept away by security forces.