Unrest in the Middle East

US marines on the ground will really help to calm things down - LOL 

US sends Marines to quell Islamic protests

The United States has sent a platoon of Marines to Yemen after demonstrators stormed the US Embassy in Sanaa in protest over a film deemed to insult the Prophet Mohammad.

TVNZ,

15 September, 2012

There are reports of protesters being killed throughout the middle-east with embassies in Tunisia, Sudan and Egypt targeted.

At least three people died and 28 others were wounded after police fought hundreds of protesters who ransacked the US embassy in Tunisia.

A Reuters reporter saw police open fire to try to quell the assault, in which protesters forced their way past riot police into the embassy.

Yemeni security forces have battled hundreds of youths, using batons, water cannon and teargas to beat back protesters, a day after demonstrators stormed the compound.

Four protesters were killed on Thursday and 48 people were wounded, including 10 members of the security contingent assigned to guard the embassy, the Interior Ministry said on its website. A further four people were injured on Friday, a Reuters witness said.

And protests continued for a third day in Egypt with police blocking the way to the US Embassy after protesters climbed its walls and tore down the American flag earlier this week.

The Pentagon said a platoon of Marines had been sent to Yemen to bolster security at the embassy and was now on the ground in Sanaa.

The storming of the embassy embarrassed Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, a US ally who quickly offered an apology to President Barack Obama and ordered an investigation into the incident.

The demonstrators were angered by a film produced in the United States which they say is blasphemous to Islam. It has sparked angry protests across the region, with violent attacks on embassies in countries including Sudan, Tunisia and Egypt.

Military police and soldiers had blocked off all streets in Sanaa leading to the US Embassy, but hundreds of protesters still gathered, brandishing placards and shouting slogans which attacked the film and called for the expulsion of the US ambassador.

Teargas, water cannon

"Today is your last day, ambassador!", read one placard, while another said: "America is the devil".

Demonstrators repeatedly charged police lines to reach the embassy compound, only to be met with barrages of teargas and from water cannon and to be beaten back by police batons. Security forces also fired shots in the air to keep the crowd at bay.

"We can forgive anything, except to insult the Prophet," said a teenage protester who identified himself as Motahar. Another teenager, Mahmoud, said: "We are going to keep demonstrating until the United States bans the film."

In Tunisia the protesters smashed windows, hurled petrol bombs and stones at police from inside the embassy, or started fires in the embassy and the compound. A black plume of smoke rose from the facility.

One protester was seen throwing a computer out of a window, while others walked away with telephones and computers.

A Tunisian security officer near the compound said the embassy had not been staffed on Friday, and calls to the embassy went unanswered. A Reuters reporter saw two armed US soldiers on the rooftop.

The protesters, many of whom were Islamic Salafists, also set fire to the nearby American School, which was closed at the time, and took away laptops and tablet computers.