Groups of protesters, whose numbers grew thick at certain places, circled the embassy in Sana’a, resulting in multiple demonstrations around the compound. The demonstrators managed to breach the area past the embassy’s main gate but were stopped at the security perimeter.
“Smoke is rising, they just flooded the security barriers. [There are] no casualties. [There is] shooting. It’s crazy,” a Yemeni official told ABC News.
Yemeni forces threw tear gas as protesters were seen scrambling over fences and the main gate, firing gunshots as they tried to stop the demonstrators.
Protesters in Sana’a removed the embassy’s sign on the outer wall and set tires ablaze, The Associated Press reported. Once inside the compound, they took down and burned the U.S. flag. Security guards at the embassy fired warning shots to stop them.
According to a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Yemen, all personnel are safe.
“Initial reports are that all embassy personnel are safe and accounted for,” the spokesman said early Thursday.
A senior official in the Obama administration said that the Yemeni government had aided the U.S. in maintaining order.
“We are doing everything we can to support our mission in Yemen. We’ve had good cooperation from the Yemeni government, which is working with us to maintain order and protect our facilities and people. These protests appear to be motivated by the film,” the official said.
The Embassy of the Republic of Yemen in Washington, D.C., released a statement condemning the attacks. “The government of Yemen condemns any and all acts of violence against diplomatic personnel and facilities. We strongly urge all those that would wish to incite others to violence to cease immediately,” the embassy said.
The protests outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo turned violent again Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. Security forces had to fight off the protesters, who managed to break through a barbed wire barrier, with tear gas and warning shots. The efforts of security forces managed to push demonstrators back more than 600 feet to Tahrir Square.
Meanwhile, U.S. Navy forces have moved two missile destroyers off the coast of Libya as an extra precaution in the wake of the malicious attacks that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. The destroyers are the USS Laboon, which was already in the Mediterranean, and the USS McFaul, which was off the coast of Portugal.
All U.S. interests across the region are in a heightened state of alert, particularly now that the government acknowledged that the assault in Benghazi was a coordinated terrorist attack that might have been planned specifically for the 11th anniversary of 9/11, and wasn’t triggered by the anti-Muslim film that purportedly sparked the protest in Cairo.
It is still unclear exactly who the attackers in Benghazi are, but President Obama said Wednesday night at a campaign rally in Las Vegas that he is committed to justice and working with the Libyan government to track down those killers.
“I want to assure you we will bring their killers to justice and we want to send us a message all around the world to anyone who wants to do us harm. No act of terror will dim the light and the values that we proudly shine on the rest of the world, and no act of violence will shake the resolve of the United States of America,” Obama said.
The embassy in Tripoli is now at emergency staffing levels; all nonessential employees have been ordered to leave.
The attack on the consulate in Benghazi Tuesday came shortly after protesters in Cairo scaled the walls of the U.S. Embassy and tore down the American flag in an angry demonstration against a movie about the life of the Prophet Mohammad, depicting the founder of Islam as a fraud and a womanizer.
Obama addressed the United States’ relationship with Egypt on Wednesday night in an interview with Telemundo.
“I don’t think that we would consider them [Egypt] an ally, but we don’t consider them an enemy,” Obama said.
Obama characterized the relationship with Egypt as a “work in progress,” expressing hope that the fledgling Egyptian government would be “responsive” to U.S. security concerns.
The U.S. Embassy in Cairo, along with embassies in Armenia, Burundi, Kuwait, Sudan, Tunisia and Zambia all issued warnings Wednesday advising Americans to be particularly vigilant.
Outrage over the “Innocence of Muslims” has spread throughout the region, with Muslims chanting “Death to America” outside the embassy in Cairo. Just who made the movie still remains a mystery.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, told The Associated Press in an interview near Los Angeles that he was a manager of the company that produced “Innocence of Muslims.”
Nakoula denied that he’d directed the film, and said he knew the self-described filmmaker, who uses the pseudonym name Sam Bacile. But the cell phone number the AP used Tuesday to contact the filmmaker was traced to the same Los Angeles area address where the AP found Nakoula.