Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday condemned the attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya, calling it a tragedy, and made clear he believed Western support for rebels in Arab countries was leading to chaos.         

Putin, who has sharply criticized the United States and NATO for helping Libyan rebels drive Muammar Gaddafi from power and has warned of further bloodshed, said the attack underscored the need for closer cooperation against extremism.              

Libyan Islamists staged military-style assaults at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, killing the U.S. ambassador and three other diplomats on Tuesday. Demonstrators attacked the U.S. embassies in Yemen and Egypt on Thursday.               

"There can be only one reaction: we condemn this crime and express sympathy to the families of the dead," Putin said of the Libya attack.                        

The attacks on the U.S. embassies in Yemen and Egypt on Thursday were in protest at a film which demonstrators consider blasphemous to Islam. American warships headed to Libya after the related violence that killed the U.S. ambassador there.                     

"We must all treat religious feelings with special attention and great care," Putin said.                

Western governments have criticized as excessive the two-year jail sentences handed to three women from punk band Pussy Riot for a profanity-laced "punk prayer" in a Moscow church in which they urged the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.                  

"If a state does not react swiftly and firmly to provocations aimed against people's religious feelings, the angered, offended and humiliated people themselves will start to defend their own interests," Putin said.              

"Sometimes this takes completely unacceptable forms and they use unacceptable methods," he said.  

REUTERS