Anti-US protests spread to Asia

Afghan protesters set fire to a US flag as they shout anti-US slogans during a demonstration in Jalalabad province September 14, 2012. Hundreds of Afghans protested against a movie they say insults Prophet Mohammad. [Photo/Agencies]

US, Isreal flags burned

The renewed protests on Monday dashed any hopes that the furor over the film might fade despite an appeal over the weekend from the senior cleric in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest shrines, for calm.

In the Kabul demonstration, protesters shouted "Death to America" and burned the flags of the United States and of Israel, a country reviled by many Muslims and Arabs because of the Palestinian issue.

The US, British and other missions were placed on lockdown and violence flared near housing compounds for foreign workers.

In Karachi, Pakistan's commercial hub, protesters on motorcycles and in cars headed towards the US consulate, prompting police to shoot in the air and fire teargas. Police said 30 students were arrested.

In Lahore, Pakistani protesters threw rocks at police and burned an American flag near the US consulate. Police said six policemen and some protesters were hurt.

Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf ordered the blocking of YouTube in the country so that the "blasphemous" film could not be viewed, the information ministry said.

His US-backed government faces a Taliban insurgency supported by al Qaeda and other militant groups but anti-US feeling is never far from the surface.

In Beirut, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah made a rare public appearance to address tens of thousands of Lebanese protesting against the film.

"Prophet of God, we offer ourselves, our blood and our kin for the sake of your dignity and honor," said Nasrallah, who has lived in hiding to avoid assassination since the Shi'ite Muslim militant movement fought a war with Israel in 2006.

Thousands marched through Beirut's Shi'ite southern suburbs shouting "Death to America, Death to Israel" and "America, hear us - don't insult our Prophet."

On television earlier, Nasrallah said the United States must be held accountable and that US intelligence agencies were orchestrating events.

In Tunisia, a Salafist leader escaped from a mosque that had been surrounded by security forces seeking to arrest him over clashes at the US Embassy last week, a Reuters witness said.

Saif-Allah Benahssine, leader of the Tunisian branch of the hardline Islamist Ansar al-Sharia, slipped away after hundreds of his followers stormed out of al-Fatah mosque in Tunis.

Benahssine told his supporters earlier he was not involved in the protests, in which two people were killed when police opened fire as protesters ransacked the US mission.

Also on Monday police in Azerbaijan arrested about 15 people who tried to protest outside the US Embassy in Baku.

Rallies had taken place as far afield as Britain and Australia at the weekend, showing the global scale of the outrage at the Prophet Mohammad film.

Iran will purse

In other developments, Iran condemned the film as offensive and vowed to pursue those responsible for making it.

"Certainly it will search for, track, and pursue this guilty person who has insulted 1.5 billion Muslims in the world," First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi told a cabinet meeting.

Iranian officials have demanded the United States apologize to Muslims for the film, saying it is only the latest in a series of Western insults aimed at Islam's holy figures.

The identity of those directly responsible for it remains unclear. Clips posted online since July have been attributed to a man named Sam Bacile, which two people connected with the film have said was probably an alias.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, a Coptic Christian widely linked to the film in media reports, was questioned in California on Saturday by US authorities investigating possible violations of his probation for a bank fraud conviction.