International violence over “Innocence of Muslims” continues

The wave of international violence denouncing "Innocence of Muslims" continues across the Muslim world. 

Lebanon:
A series of protests to denounce the anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims” is expected to take to the Lebanese streets this afternoon following calls made by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.            

"Those responsible for the film, starting with the U.S., must be held accountable," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said. "All these developments are being orchestrated by U.S. intelligence."              
Accordingly Hezbollah's ally and fellow Shiite party, Amal, called on its partisans to join in the demonstrations that are set to take place mainly in Beirut’s Southern Suburbs.    


Afghanistan:
In Kabul on Monday, the air was thick with smoke on Jalalabad road  a main thoroughfare into the city center where the crowd burned shipping containers and tires. At least one police vehicle was burned by the mob before they finally dispersed around midday, according Daoud Amin, the deputy police chief for Kabul province. Hundreds of Afghans burned cars and threw rocks at a U.S. military base as a demonstration against an anti-Islam film that ridicules the Prophet Muhammad turned violent in the Afghan capital early Monday.

Indonesia:
Indonesians enraged over an anti-Islam film clashed with police outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta on Monday, hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails and setting tires ablaze.
   
At least one police officer was seen bleeding from the head while being carried to safety by fellow officers. Protesters in the world's largest Muslim-majority country burned a picture of President Barack Obama and also tried to ignite a fire truck parked outside the embassy. Molotov cocktails exploded against a fence surrounding it. Police used a bullhorn to call for calm, and deployed water cannons and tear gas to try to break up the crowd as the protesters shouted "Allah Akbar," or God is great.


Pakistan:
Hundreds of people protesting an anti-Islam video have set fire to a press club and a government office in northwest Pakistan, sparking clashes with police that killed one demonstrator. Police official Mukhtar Ahmad says the protesters first attacked the press club in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's Upper Dir district Monday, apparently angered because their demonstration wasn't getting more coverage.

Another police official, Akhtar Hayat, says one protester died when police and the demonstrators exchanged fire and several were wounded.


Iran:
Iran's government will "track down" those responsible for making an amateurish film clip mocking the Prophet Mohammad, a senior official said, Iranian media reported on Monday.

"The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns ... this inappropriate and offensive action," First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said, according to the Mehr news agency.
   
"Certainly it will search for, track, and pursue this guilty person who ... has insulted 1.5 billion Muslims in the world."

Iranian officials have demanded that the United States apologise to Muslims for the movie, saying it is only the latest in a series of Western insults aimed at Islam's holy figures.
   
Innocence of Muslims:
The low-budget film, privately produced in the United States, portrays Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester. It sparked violent protests in many Muslim countries in recent days, many of them outside U.S. diplomatic posts around the world.
 
The U.S. Ambassador to Libya was killed during an attack on the consulate in Benghazi last week; protesters have also stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tunis and held violent demonstrations outside posts in Egypt and Sudan. The U.S. has responded by deploying additional military forces to increase security in certain hotspots.

 
REUTERS/AP/LBCI