• Analysis: 'Manufactured outrage' behind Middle East protests

    Slideshow: Anger over film spreads throughout Muslim world

    Akhtar Soomro / Reuters

    Protests ignited by a controversial film that ridicules Islam's Prophet Muhammad spread throughout Muslim world.

    Launch slideshow

    By Jim Maceda, NBC News

    News analysis

    Updated at 7:53 a.m. ET: CAIRO — It's been just over a week since hundreds, perhaps a thousand, angry and offended Egyptians gathered outside the U.S. Embassy's gates in Cairo. They carried Islamist banners and chanted, "The only God is God and Muhammad is his Prophet."

    At one point perhaps two dozen of the more brazen protesters scaled the wall and breached the embassy grounds. They lowered and destroyed the U.S. flag and raised a black, Islamic flag in its place. They fled when security guards (not the Egyptian police) fired warning shots over their heads.

    This amounted to little violence, but the act itself was the psychological equivalent of taking a beachhead. Within hours reports emerged that a similarly sized group had stormed the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Some were calling it a copycat protest, but it was much more perilous: Four Americans were killed in the melee, including the U.S. ambassador.

    Within 48 hours the world would witness angry protests unfolding at U.S. embassies, businesses and symbols of power in more than 20 countries.

    Protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and pulled down the American flag during a protest over what they said was a film produced in the United States that insulted the Prophet Muhammad. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    This paroxysm of protest — and violence — had begun in Cairo. But what, really, began there?

    Much of the mainstream media has played it as a spontaneous reaction to a disgusting film clip which denigrated Muslims and happened to be made and promoted in the USA.

    But New York Times editorialist Ross Douthat argued it had nothing to do with a "genuine popular backlash," but everything to do with old-style power politics. For Jim Clifton, chairman of the pollster Gallup, it wasn't about religion or politics, but rather the desperate expression of young Arab males, deeply humiliated because they couldn't find jobs.

    'Political manipulation'
    Egyptian analysts seem to be more in agreement: Many protesters outside the U.S. Embassy were genuinely offended by the film. But the real driving force behind the protest — in Cairo and Benghazi — were radical Islamist groups who know how to exploit rage for political gain.

    Actors and the assistant director of the film "Innocence of Muslims" told NBC News that the original spoken lines in the screenplay were dubbed over without their knowledge. NBC's Mike Taibbi reports.

    "There are still a lot of questions that need to be answered," said Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian journalist. "For instance, why after two months of being on YouTube did this film suddenly explode on the anniversary of 9/11? That is political manipulation and manufactured outrage that the right wing is all too happy to use.''

    Egypt issues arrest warrants for Terry Jones, Coptic Christians over anti-Islam video

    By "right-wing" Eltahawy means ultra conservatives – often called Salafists – who practice a strict, puritanical form of Islam and make up the fastest-growing Islamic political and social movement in the world. On the night of the Cairo embassy attacks, the Salafists saw an opportunity to flex their muscles.

    "A lot of people went to the U.S. Embassy not just because of the film, and after the film died down, it wasn't about the film anymore," Eltahawy explained. "They went because of anti-U.S. sentiment, because they know in this region how easy it is to fan the flames of anger."

    French officials are preparing for a potential violent backlash as a satirical magazine defends its decision to publish cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

    Dr. Gamal Abdel Gawad, a highly respected Egyptian political analyst, agrees.

    "I don't think it was spontaneous," he told NBC News. "People were gathering in one place at a certain time of day, so there was some mobilization behind it.''

    Actress sues, says she was fooled into appearing in anti-Muslim movie

    And it's clear to Gawad who did the mobilizing. "Radical Salafist groups orchestrated it to express their views and embarrass the [more moderate] Muslim Brotherhood because of competition between Islamic groups."

    Post Arab-Spring power play
    What's enfolding in Egypt – and to a large extent in Libya — is not just a series of isolated power plays. In both countries the leaders who emerged from the Arab Spring are struggling to eke out a political center in order to govern their new democracies, while under extreme pressure from more radical Islamist — sometimes jihadist — forces. Everything is still at stake.

    This has led some Egyptians — like Eltahawy — to worry that their 18-month-old revolution will be hijacked by the extremists.
    "I'm hoping that this right-wing drive of the past days is the dying pangs of a group that understands that the revolution was started by us, the majority, and we remain very much the majority."

    Crowds of angry protesters showed up in Kabul, Afghanistan and Jakarta, Indonesia. The violent uprising followed a deadly weekend marking the deaths of eight International Security Assistance Force members. NBC's Atia Abawi reports.

    Gawad is more sanguine about the future. "The revolution is over. The president is in power, and Egyptian political parties are busy preparing for elections and campaigns. The radical groups can't get significant numbers elected," he said. Still, as dramatic scenes over the past week have shown, those groups — often armed — can wreak havoc.


    Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi seemed to give ground to the Salafists, even leaving the country at the height of a standoff between stone-throwing protesters and riot police for diplomatic meetings abroad.

    Finally, last Saturday, he gave the order to clear out the protesters and appeared on TV calling on Muslims to protect foreign citizens and property. Some called it a turning point.

    Now that a Paris-based satirical magazine has published cartoons of a naked Prophet Muhammad, will Egyptians respond with silent indignation, peaceful marches or be the first to storm their French Embassy?

    Jim Maceda is an NBC News foreign correspondent based in London and currently on assignment in Cairo. He has covered the Middle East since the 1970s.

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  • Hezbollah leader calls for anti-Islam film protests in Lebanon

    Thousands in Beirut, Lebanon protested the controversial anti-Islam film that has spurred protests. NBC's Claudio Lavagna reports. 

    By Reuters

    Updated at 6:30 p.m. ET: The head of Lebanon's Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah on Sunday called for nationwide protests over a film about the Prophet Muhammad, saying that the United States must be held accountable for creating strife between Muslims and Christians.

    The call came as Western embassies across the Muslim world remained on high alert Sunday as protests continued from London to Lahore. Violence left one dead in Pakistan.

    "We call for protests tomorrow in the southern suburbs (of Beirut) at 5 o'clock," Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech. "Muslims and Christians must remain vigilant in order to refrain from sliding towards strife. Those responsible for the film, starting with the U.S., must be held accountable."

    Stringer / Reuters

    Lebanese Islamists wave Syrian Opposition flags Sunday to express solidarity with Syria's anti-government protesters as they burn an Israeli and a U.S. flag to protest against a film they consider blasphemous to Islam and insulting to the Prophet Muhammad, in Tripoli, northern Lebanon.

    "All these developments are being orchestrated by U.S. intelligence," he said, adding that the U.S. government was using the excuse of freedom of speech in order to justify the continued broadcast of the film.

    Nasrallah also called for demonstrations around Lebanon, including the southern coastal town of Tyre on Wednesday and the northern town of Hermel on Sunday.

    The video, circulating on the Internet under several titles including "Innocence of Muslims", portrays Mohammad as a womanizer and a fool. In one clip posted on YouTube, Mohammad was shown in a sexual act with a woman.

    Many Muslims consider any depiction of the prophet as offensive and fury about the film tore across the Middle East this week, with protesters attacking U.S. embassies and burning American flags.

    Fareed Khan / AP

    Pakistani protesters hurl back tear gas fired by police, unseen, to stop them from walking toward the U.S. consulate during a demonstration in Karachi, Pakistan, Sunday.

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    The U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans were killed in Benghazi, Libya, last Tuesday. At least nine people were killed in protests in several countries on Friday, but protests subsided over the weekend.

    Pope tells Christians in Beirut: 'Be peacemakers'

    Nasrallah's speech came a few hours after Pope Benedict left Lebanon for the Vatican, ending a three-day tour in which he urged Arab leaders to serve justice and peace.

    Related:

    Nasrallah, head of the strongest armed force in the country, said in a statement last week that he supported the visit.

    Western diplomatic missions were on edge Sunday. Germany followed the U.S. lead and withdrew some staff from its Sudan embassy, which was stormed on Friday.

    Around 350 people chanted slogans at a rally outside the U.S. Embassy in London; a small group of protesters burned a U.S. flag outside the U.S. Embassy in the Turkish capital, and in Pakistan there were small protests in more than a dozen cities.

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    One person was killed when unidentified people opened fire at a protest in the southern city of Hyderabad, police said.

    Fareed Khan / AP

    A Pakistani protester holds a stone as others hang a flag at the entry of the gate of the U.S. Consulate during a demonstration in Karachi, Pakistan, Sunday.

    One person was killed and dozens of people when anti-American protesters tried to storm the American Consulate in the southern port city of Karachi and clashed for several hours with the police and paramilitary troops on Sunday evening, rescue workers and police officials said, The New York Times reported.

    Pakistani officials had increased security in all major cities before Friday Prayer services and until Sunday, calm had prevailed. The American Embassy here said in a message posted Sunday evening on Twitter that “all American personnel are safe and accounted for at U.S. Consulate, Karachi.”

    The United States has deployed a significant force in the Middle East to deal with any contingencies and rapid deployment teams were ready to respond to incidents, he said.

    The foreign minister of Egypt, where hundreds of people were arrested in four days of clashes, assured Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that U.S. diplomatic grounds would be protected.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Ambassador Rice: Benghazi attack began spontaneously

    U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice recaps the causes and effects of recent violence against Americans in the Middle East.

    By NBC News staff and wire services

    The attack that killed four Americans at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, apparently began as a spontaneous protest against an anti-Islam film before turning violent, Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Sunday.


    Rice, appearing in NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said she was citing preliminary information and that the FBI was investigating the Tuesday night attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three others.

    Libyan officials are holding 30 to 40 suspecting in the deadly attack of a the US embassy in Libya. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    A wave of protests and violence has swept across the Middle East and elsewhere in the Muslim world over an obscure, amateurish movie called "Innocence of Muslims" that depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a pedophile. Anti-U.S. protests in 20 countries led the Pentagon to dispatch elite Marine antiterrorism teams to Libya and Yemen and to position two Navy warships off Libya's coast.

    Meanwhile, the State Department ordered all nonessential U.S. government workers and their families out of Sudan and Tunisia. In Lebanon, protesters torched an American fast-food restaurant. Even as tensions appeared to ease over the weekend, al-Qaida's most active Mideast branch was calling for further attacks on U.S. embassies.

    "There's no question, as we've seen in the past with things like 'The Satanic Verses,' with the cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, there have been such things that have sparked outrage and anger and this has been the proximate cause of what we've seen," Rice said.

    “What happened in Benghazi was in fact initially a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in Cairo, almost a copycat of the demonstrations against our facility in Cairo, prompted by the video,” Rice said.

    More from "Meet the Press": Israeli PM tries to strike more neutral pose in U.S. election 

    Protesters in Cairo had breached the walls of the U.S. Embassy and tore down the American flag.

    In Benghazi, Rice told “Meet the Press” host David Gregory, “Opportunistic extremist elements came to the consulate as this was unfolding, they came with heavy weapons, which unfortunately are readily available in post-revolutionary Libya, and it escalated into a much more violent episode.”

    Related:

    There was “no actionable intelligence” that the attack in Benghazi was imminent, Rice said. The attack overwhelmed security in place at the consulate, she said.

    Rice’s comments came a day after Libyan President Mohammed Magarief told NBC News that “foreigners” were involved in the planning and execution of the attack.

    He expanded on the assertion Sunday, saying on CBS’ "Face the Nation" that about 50 people, not all Libyans, have been arrested in connection with the Benghazi attack, which he said was planned by al-Qaida-linked foreigners, some from Mali and Algeria.

    Magarief said there was little doubt the assault was planned rather than a spontaneous reaction to the video, as came on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.

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    He said the security situation in Libya remained "difficult" for Americans, as well as for Libyans. The United States wants the FBI to investigate the consulate attack, but Magarief said it may be too soon to send in investigators.

    "It may be better for them to stay away for a little while until we do what we have to do ourselves," he said.

    Rice told "Meet the Press" that the U.S. is working with authorities in Libya, which has received $200 million in U.S. aid since 2011, to bring to justice those responsible for the attack.

    This article includes reporting by Reuters.

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  • Libyan president tells NBC: 'Foreigners' involved in US Consulate attack

    NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin spoke to Libyan President Mohamed Magariaf about the search for the group that killed four Americans in Benghazi.

    By NBC News

    Libyans and "foreigners" carried out the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, Libyan President Mohamed Magariaf told NBC News on Saturday.


    Magariaf's interview with NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin was the first time any Libyan official has said foreigners were involved in the planning and execution of the Tuesday night attack that took the lives of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others.

    "We have assumptions and we have some information, and all that information we have now leads to the same direction about the perpetrators, the criminals," Magariaf told NBC in the interview aired on "Nightly News" Saturday.

    Foreigners were involved in the planning and execution of the attack, he said.

    Magariaf did not identify where the foreigners came from but said he was sharing details with U.S. officials.

    Many people reportedly have exploited Libya's security vacuum and loopholes, Libyans have told NBC.

    The violent protests in response to an anti-Islamic film have been spreading across the Middle East and the North Africa region, with attention focused on U.S. embassies and offices. NBC News' Jim Maceda reports.

    Magariaf also added that Libyan authorities have suspects in custody.

    Related:

    Earlier Saturday, a security official told Reuters that Libyan authorities identified 50 people involved in the attack.

    "We have names and we know who they are, but there could be more," said Abdel-Monem Al-Hurr, spokesman for Libya's Supreme Security Committee.

    "Four have been arrested. Some of the others may have escaped via Benghazi airport, maybe to Egypt, but this not confirmed," Al-Hurr said. "We have given their names to all of the Libyan border entry points."

    This article also includes reporting by Reuters.

    NBC's Mike Taibbi has more on three men suspected of producing an anti-Islam film that is sparking outrage around the globe.

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  • Sudan rejects addition of Marines at US Embassy

    The U.S. has deployed an FBI investigation team and drones to Libya to search for those responsible for the murder of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire services

    Updated at 4:15 p.m. ET:KHARTOUM -- Sudan has rejected a U.S. request to send a platoon of Marines to bolster security at the U.S. embassy outside Khartoum, the state news agency SUNA said on Saturday.

    The U.S. ordered all family members and non-emergency personnel out of Khartoum as well as Tunis, Tunisia, posts, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said Saturday afternoon. The State Department also issued travel warnings to U.S. citizens in both countries.


    Earlier Saturday, a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to disclose details on the troop movement, said Sudan's objection held up the deployment of 50 Marines. A U.S. official said the Marines had already set off for Khartoum but had been called back pending further discussions with Sudan.

    Nuland earlier Saturday didn't speak about the Marines but acknowledged Sudan had "recommitted itself both publicly and privately to continue to protect our Mission, as it is obligated to do under the Vienna Convention."

    "We are continuing to monitor the situation closely to ensure we have what we need to protect our people and facility," Nuland said.

    AFP - Getty Images

    Smoke billows from the US embassy in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Friday during a protest against an amateur film mocking Islam.

    On Friday, around 5,000 people protested against a film that insults the Prophet Muhammad, storming the German embassy before breaking into the U.S. mission.

    They also attacked the British embassy. At least two people were killed in clashes with police, according to state media.

    In Tunis, four people were killed and 46 were wounded, the Tunisian government said, after police gunfire near the U.S. Embassy in the North African city that was the model for last year's pro-democracy revolutions.

    Police fought hundreds of protesters who smashed windows, hurled petrol bombs and stones at police from inside, and started fires in the embassy and to a gym and a neighboring American school. A Reuters reporter saw police open fire on protesters forcing their way into the embassy building.

    A U.S. official told Reuters on Friday that Washington would send Marines to Sudan to improve security at the embassy located outside Khartoum.

    Related:

    "Sudan is able to protect the diplomatic missions in Khartoum and the state is committed to protecting its guests in the diplomatic corps," Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti told SUNA.

    The violent protests in response to an anti-Islamic film have been spreading across the Middle East and the North Africa region, with attention focused on U.S. embassies and offices. NBC News' Jim Maceda reports.

    Sudan beefed up security at some missions on Saturday. A riot police truck was parked in front of the deserted German embassy, which protesters had set on fire on Friday. An Islamic flag raised by the crowd was still flying. Three officers manned the main gate.

    More than 20 police officers were sitting in front of the U.S. Embassy.

    The film, which depicts Muhammad as a womanizer and charlatan, was made in the United States, and Muslim outrage has led to crowds assaulting U.S. diplomatic missions in a number of Arab countries.

    U.S. authorities are interviewing a California man suspected of making an anti-Islamic film that has sparked violent protests across the Middle East.

    Sudan has also criticized Germany for allowing a protest last month by right-wing activists carrying caricatures of Muhammad, and for Chancellor Angela Merkel's award in 2010 to a Danish cartoonist who had depicted the prophet, triggering unrest across the Islamic world.

    President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has been under pressure from Islamists who feel the government has given up the religious values of his 1989 Islamist coup.

    The Sudanese government had called for protests against the film, but peaceful ones. President Barack Obama's administration said it had nothing to do with the movie, which is little more than an amateurish video clip and appears to have been made in California.

    This article includes reporting by NBC News' Catherine Chomiak, Reuters and The Associated Press.

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  • Obama: US has 'profound respect for people of all faiths'

    On Saturday, President Barack Obama once again promised that those responsible for the deaths of four Americans in Libya will be found. NBC's Mike Viqueira reports.

    By NBC News and wires services

    Updated at 3:20 p.m. ET: President Barack Obama on Saturday rejected any denigration of Islam, but insisted there was no excuse for attacks on U.S. embassies as angry protests over an obscure, anti-Muslim film spread to Australia.

    "I have made it clear that the United States has a profound respect for people of all faiths," Obama said in his weekly radio address.

    "Yet there is never any justification for violence .... There is no excuse for attacks on our embassies and consulates,” he added.

    Anti-American protests have swept the Muslim world in response to the film, which insults the Prophet Muhammad.

    Libya president: 'Foreigners' involved in consulate attack

    The death toll as a result of violence during protests in the Middle East and North Africa Friday rose from seven to nine with Tunisian officials saying four people -- rather than two as stated earlier -- died there. Three were killed by gunfire and the other died after being hit by two police cars, a senior hospital official told Reuters.

    Egyptian riot police charged protesters and cleared out Tahrir Square on Saturday, arresting nearly 200 people. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.

    An attack on the U.S. Consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others this week.

    A day after Obama led a somber ceremony marking the return of the bodies of the Americans killed in Libya, Obama acknowledged that a surge of anti-American violence in the Middle East is disturbing.

    Related: Suspected anti-Islam filmmaker questioned by Feds


    The Pentagon had said it was sending Marines to beef up security at the U.S. Embassy in Sudan, following similar reinforcements to Libya and Yemen. But on Saturday, Sudan rejected the U.S. request to send a platoon the embassy in Khartoum.

    "Sudan is able to protect the diplomatic missions in Khartoum and the state is committed to protecting its guests in the diplomatic corps," Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti told SUNA, the state news agency.

    Protesters on Friday entered the embassy grounds.

    The Libyan attack and theU.S.-directed outrage have raised questions about Obama's handling of the so-called Arab Spring, a series of revolutions that have unseated entrenched authoritarian governments.

    Related: At least seven reported killed in protests

    The turbulence in the Middle East has had ripples in a tight U.S. presidential election, with Obama's Republican challenger Mitt Romney saying Obama has weakened U.S. authority around the world.

    However, Obama repeated a vow to bring the attackers of the U.S. Consulate in Libya to justice. "We will not waver in their pursuit," he said.

    The president also said the turmoil should not deter U.S. efforts to support democracy in the region or elsewhere.

    "Let us never forget that for every angry mob, there are millions who yearn for the freedom, and dignity, and hope that our flag represents," he said.

    The protests over the anti-Islam film, "Innocence of Muslims," continued Saturday, spreading to Australia where authorities seemed taken by surprise as more than 400 demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Consulate in Sydney.

    Some of the chanting protesters carried placards reading "Behead all those who insult the Prophet."

    Several streets, usually thronging with weekend shoppers, were blocked off by police as the protest grew. Police, many wearing anti-riot equipment and some on horseback, used dogs and chemical sprays as they tried to control the protest.

    Al Arabiya News' Hisham Melhem joins MSNBC to talk about the complex situation surrounding recent U.S. embassy attacks.

    Reuters Television pictures showed one policeman with a head injury being led away by colleagues. Police later said six officers had been injured and eight protesters arrested. A spokesman for paramedics said there were no serious injuries. 

    A Muslim leader addressed the protesters in a park, calling for calm.

    In Egypt, the interior minister said he would restore calm after a 35-year-old protester was killed and dozens of people were injured in clashes overnight.

    The authorities closed the street leading to the U.S. Embassy where the demonstrators had spent four days throwing rocks and petrol bombs at police.

    A Reuters reporter saw police push several young men into trucks. Two of the men looked bruised and one was stripped down to his underwear.

    Police formed cordons on roads into Tahrir Square near the U.S. mission and plain-clothes officers wielding sticks frisked passers-by. The square, the focus of last year's popular uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak, was strewn with garbage and a torched vehicle was towed away.

    Tim Wimborne / Reuters

    An injured protester is detained by a policeman in Sydney's Hyde Park, Saturday.

    "Our presence here is to clear the square of people who are breaking the law," Interior Minister Ahmed Gamal el-Din said as he inspected the area. "We must preserve the square as a symbol of the revolution. That is the aim of our operation."

    He said measures would be taken to ensure "those breaking the law" do not return.

    The protesters said they wanted to expel the U.S. ambassador to punish Washington over the low-budget film. It portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a womanizer and religious fake. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called the film "disgusting and reprehensible."

    Egypt's state news agency said 27 people were injured on Friday, which suggests more than 250 people have been hurt in the clashes since Tuesday, when protesters climbed the embassy's walls and tore down an American flag.

    President Mohamed Morsi, an Islamist and Egypt's first freely elected leader, has to strike a delicate balance, fulfilling a pledge to protect the embassy of a major aid donor while delivering a robust line against the film to satisfy his Islamist backers.

    In Sinai, militants attacked an international observer base close to the borders of Israel and Gaza, a witness and a security source said. Two Colombian soldiers were wounded, an official from the observer force said.

    Many Muslims regard any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad as blasphemous. The film has provoked outrage across the Middle East and led to the storming of several U.S. missions in the region.

    A look at how the recent protests across the Middle East affect the public's perception of President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

    In Libya, authorities said they had made four arrests in the investigation into the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on Tuesday that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

    Morsi has condemned the film, rejected violence and promised to protect diplomatic missions. His cabinet said Washington was not to blame for the film but urged the United States to take legal action against those insulting religion.

    The United States has a large embassy in Cairo, partly because of a vast aid program that began after Egypt signed a peace deal with Israel in 1979. Washington gives $1.3 billion in aid a year to Egypt's army plus additional funds for government.

    The U.S. has deployed an FBI investigation team and drones to Libya to search for those responsible for the murder of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    In Yemen, al Qaida urged Muslims on Saturday to step up protests and kill U.S. diplomats in Muslim countries and called the film denigrating Muhammad another chapter in the "crusader wars" against Islam.

    "Whoever comes across America's ambassadors or emissaries should follow the example of Omar al-Mukhtar's descendants (Libyans), who killed the American ambassador," Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said.

    "Let the step of kicking out the embassies be a step towards liberating Muslim countries from the American hegemony," it said in a statement posted on a website.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • At least seven reported killed in regional protests over anti-Islamic video

    Clashes near the US embassy continued in Cairo while in Sudan, British and German embassies were both targeted. The violence continued for a second day in Yemen, with protesters burning American flags. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

    New in this version: U.S. sending 50 Marines to embassy Sudan

    Updated at 6:35 p.m. ET: At least seven people were reported to have been killed Friday across the Middle East and Africa in protests over the anti-Islamic video that led to a deadly attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya this week.

    Tom Capra, Catherine Chomiak, Roxanne Escobales, Charlene Gubash, Elizabeth Leist, Claudio Lavanga, Jim Miklaszewski, Ayman Mohyeldin, Amna Nawaz, Daniel Strieff and Mike Taibbi of NBC News contributed to this report. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

    The U.S. said late Friday it would send 50 Marines to reinforce security at the embassy in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, where the Arabic news service al-Arabiya reported three people were killed Friday afternoon in a protest. 

    Unrest worldwide was centered mainly on U.S. embassies, but other targets also came under attack, including embassies and other outposts of Britain, Germany and the U.N.

    Google Inc. rejected a request by the White House on Friday to reconsider its decision to keep online the controversial YouTube clip of the trailer for "Innocence of Muslims," an unreleased U.S.-made movie that depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a womanizer and a gay child abuser. The Internet company said it was censoring the video in India and Indonesia after blocking it in Egypt and Libya.

    A spokesman at the embassy in Khartoum said guards on the roof fired warning shots after hundreds of protesters breached the embassy's security perimeter and some tried to climb over the wall.

    There are two very different sentiments on the streets in Benghazi – demonstrators burning the American flag, and others who support the United States. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    No members of the embassy staff were injured, the spokesman said.

    The protesters moved to the U.S. compound after violent rallies outside the German and British embassies, which are near each other. Witnesses and police said as many as 5,000 protesters surrounding the two compounds were dispersed when police opened fire with tear-gas canisters. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

    See the latest on this story at BreakingNews.com

    In Tunisia, two people — at least one of them a protester — were killed and 29 others were injured outside the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, the Health Ministry said. At least two of the injured were in critical condition, the ministry reported, according to the official Tunisian news agency, TAP.

    The protesters gathered at the embassy after earlier having set fire to the American School, which was closed Friday, the embassy said in a statement. Both the school and the embassy sustained "severe property damage," it said.

    A protester was killed in a clash with police near the U.S Embassy in Cairo, a security source told Reuters. The victim, who died from birdshot wounds, was the first person to be killed in Egypt.

    Protesters hurled stones at police, who responded with tear gas. 

    From Northern Africa to Indonesia, protesters — sparked by outrage over an anti-Islam film produced in the U.S. — marched in sometimes-violent demonstrations. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.

    The Muslim Brotherhood said on Twitter that it was canceling its call for nationwide protests about the film. However, it said it would still be present in Cairo's central Tahrir Square "for a symbolic protest against the movie."

    And in Lebanon, at least one person was killed and 25 others were wounded in protests in Tripoli timed to coincide with the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI on a three-day visit, Lebanese officials said. Hundreds of people set a KFC and Hardee's restaurant on fire, witnesses said. 
    Demonstrations continued to rage across the region Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, in protest of the clip on YouTube.
    Google said was further restricting the clip to comply with local law rather than as a response to political pressure.

    "We've restricted access to it in countries where it is illegal such as India and Indonesia, as well as in Libya and Egypt, given the very sensitive situations in these two countries," the company said. "This approach is entirely consistent with principles we first laid out in 2007."

    NBC's Richard Engel in Egypt and NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin in Libya report on what might have triggered recent attacks on U.S. facilities.

    White House officials had asked Google earlier on Friday to reconsider whether the video had violated YouTube's terms of service.
    Google said on Wednesday that the video was within its guidelines. 
     

    Man behind anti-Islam movie ID'd as Egypt-born ex-con

    Why films and cartoons of Muhammad spark violence 

    Any depiction of Muhammad — favorable or not — is considered blasphemy in most of the Muslim world; the sheer grotesqueness of "Innocence of Muslims" made it a particular provocation.

    Four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed Tuesday night in two attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attended the return of the remains of the four Americans at Joint Base Andrews in suburban Maryland on Friday afternoon.

    Americans killed in U.S. consulate attack honored at Andrews

    Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee who were briefed by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday that it seemed clear that the Libya attacks were planned and premeditated. They cited the weapons carried by the attackers as the primary evidence.


    "From all that I've heard," the attacks Tuesday night "were not just some coincidental protest of this film, this anti-Muslim film," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. "They were a well-planned and professional terrorist attack against the U.S. consulate in Benghazi."

    Clashes across region
    In addition to Sudan, Tunisia, Egypt and Lebanon, demonstrations Friday spanned numerous countries across the Middle East and northern Africa:

    •  U.N. multinational peacekeeping observers in the Sinai Peninsula were attacked by demonstrators protesting the movie, Israeli TV reported. Three peacekeepers from Colombia were injured in what appeared to be a coordinated attack using handheld explosive devices and automatic weapons, a spokesman told NBC News.

    NBC's Michael Isikoff and Roger Cressey discuss Nakoula Bassely Nakoula, who is suspected of producing the controversial film degrading Islam.

    • About 50 U.S. Marines have been sent to Yemen to provide additional security in the aftermath of Thursday's attack on the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, Defense Department officials told NBC News. The Marines, part of a Fleet Anti-Terror Security Team, are an identical unit to the one sent to Libya earlier this week.

    • A large demonstration against the Muhammad movie broke out at BMCI, a bank in Nouakchott, Mauritania, the U.S. Embassy said. It urged all U.S. citizens to avoid the areas around the bank and the Embassy.

    • The UN multinational peacekeeping observer mission in the Sinai Peninsula was attacked Friday. Four people, believed to be peacekeepers from Colombia, were reported to have been injured. The multinational force observes the compliance of the Camp David peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

    • In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, about 200 protesters vented their anger by chanting "death to Jews!" and "death to America!" in a largely peaceful protest outside the heavily guarded U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.

    • Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, chanting for jihad and praising the late al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and the killers of Stevens in Libya.

    EPA

    Protesters clash with security forces after setting a fire at the German Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, on Friday.

    • In Pakistan, protests cropped up in major cities such as Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, but Friday prayers seemed to have passed without major incidents of violence, NBC News reported.

    • About 200 demonstrators gathered Friday outside the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait and hoisted banners.

    • In Bangladesh, Islamists tried to march on the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, and Iranian students protested in Tehran.

    • In Nigeria, where the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram has killed hundreds of people this year in an insurgency, the government put police on alert and stepped up security around foreign missions.

    • Protesters in Afghanistan set fire to an effigy of Obama and burned a U.S. flag after Friday prayers in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

    More world stories from NBC News:

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  • Why films and cartoons of Muhammad spark violence

    Abedin Taherkenareh / EPA

    Iranian women shout anti-U.S. slogans in front of the Swiss embassy, which houses the U.S. interest section, in Tehran on Thursday. Reports from the Iranian capital said about 500 joined the protest of the Internet-circulated movie "Innocence of Muslims."

    By Kari Huus, NBC News

    While the motivation behind the low-budget video "Innocence of Muslims" remains unclear, the reasons it has helped fuel attacks and protests at U.S. diplomatic missions in the Middle East and Africa are both emotional and political, experts say.

    While it is true that images of Muhammad are not allowed in Islamic tradition, that doesn't explain the violent reaction, said Hassan Shibly, an imam and civil rights lawyer in Florida who works for the Council on American Islamic Relations.

    The reason for the prohibition in the Quran was that Muhammad wanted to discourage idolatry, he explained.


    "The Islamic tradition forbade depictions of any prophet or any holy people so that people throughout the years don’t start worshipping the prophet," Shibly said. "God is supposed to be the focus, not Muhammad or Jesus or anyone else."

    Images of God, whom Muslims call Allah, also are not allowed because Muhammad believed that no picture could capture the creator, Shibly said. This is why the walls of mosques are typically decorated with abstract art and calligraphy.

    The film, which has been blamed for fueling protests at U.S. diplomatic posts, including the violence at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead, and Danish cartoons that caused so much protest in 2005 caused outrage among Muslims because they were seen as ridiculing or criticizing the prophet.

    Actors and the assistant director of the film "Innocence of Muslims" told NBC News that the original spoken lines in the screenplay were dubbed over without their knowledge. NBC's Mike Taibbi reports.

    "For Muslims, Muhammad is a sacred symbol," said John Esposito, a professor at Georgetown University. "Muhammad represents and embodies the religion of Islam. He’s not a god, but plays the role historically that Jesus played historically."

    Images like these are now making their way, via the Internet to Muslim populations who have never before been exposed to sharp critiques of their faith, which also helps explain the level of anger they have stirred.

    Esposito said the reaction resembles those in the West earlier in history.

    He pointed to the uproar over 1988 Hollywood film "The Last Temptation of Christ." Director Martin Scorsese's adaptation of a book by the same name showed Jesus struggling with lust, depression and doubt, and  engaging in sex — in his imaginings — before snapping back to reality and dying on the cross. That movie was seen as blasphemy by some Christians, who — though not violent — were vocal enough to prevent the film from being shown in many parts of the United States.

    Shibly stressed that there is no justification for the violence that took the lives of the four Americans in Libya, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, on Tuesday. CAIR on Wednesday issued a call for Muslims to ignore what it called the "trashy" anti-Islam film and has condemned the killings.

    "It’s so hypocritical for (the attackers) to do these acts in the name of the prophet Muhammad,” said Shibly. "Muhammad didn’t win over his enemies by violence, he did so through compassion."

    However, he says that insults to Muhammad hurt deeply.

    "Muslims love the prophets of god more than we love our own parents, more than we love ourselves," said Shibly. "When people attack Muhammad, it definitely hurts us on an emotion level. But, that said, it doesn’t justify the violence. That’s just totally unacceptable."

    "Innocence of Muslims" features wooden acting, poor dubbing, awkward sexual moments and ham-fisted insults, with none of the production values of "The Last Temptation of Christ," or any serious exploration of Islam. Experts said it would almost certainly have remained obscure had it not ignited the protests and violence after being circulated in Arabic via the Internet.

    So far, it remains unclear who produced the film, and who funded it. Initially, the maker was identified as an Israeli-American man identified as Sam Bacile. But by Thursday, published reports were suggesting that it was the work of a group of anti-Islam Christians.

    The latest reporting suggests that  Bacile is actually Egyptian-born Coptic Christian named Nakoula Basseley who lives in the Los Angeles area. The Copts are a minority in Egypt, and often victims of discrimination in the majority Muslim country, as well as attacks by extremists.

    In a geopolitical context, said Esposito, the film plays right into the hands of extremists in the region who are using anti-American sentiment to advance their own goals.

    "What we have here, and it’s significant symbolically ... on or around 9/11 (anniversary), two terrorist or extremist attacks in Benghazi and in Cairo. … They are attacking symbols of the U.S. They are playing to a population. … It would be anti-American, but (they are) using this (video) to legitimize what they are doing."

    Shibly also wonders if the film itself was produced or circulated strategically to stir up well-known sensitivities.

    "The sad thing is these people are doing it on purpose," he said. "And unfortunately these Muslims fell right into the trap."

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  • Man behind anti-Islam film reportedly is Egyptian-born ex-con

    By Michael Isikoff, NBC News

    Updated 1:36 a.m. ET: A 55-year-old Egypt-born Coptic Christian man living in the Los Angeles area was a key figure behind the anti-Islam film "Innocence of Muslims," blamed for sparking riots and protests in the Middle East, a federal law enforcement official told NBC News Thursday.

    Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who is on probation after being convicted of financial crimes, also was twice sentenced to jail on drug charges in the late 1990s, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office said.

    Court records show that Nakoula was convicted on federal fraud charges in Los Angeles in 2010. Among the conditions of his probation, Nakoula was barred from using "any online service at any location" without the prior approval of his probation officer, according to a copy of court records in the case.

    Actors and the assistant director of the film "Innocence of Muslims" told NBC News that the original spoken lines in the screenplay were dubbed over without their knowledge. NBC's Mike Taibbi reports.

     

    Federal law enforcement officials are investigating whether Nakoula violated his probation on those fraud charges in his efforts to promote the movie, an official has confirmed to NBC News. 

    The official emphasized that the current probe of Nakoula relates only to whether he violated his probation order — not into the content of the inflammatory movie.

    "This is not an investigation of the film," the official said, or in any way intended to infringe on his "First Amendment rights." 


    It was not immediately clear whether Nakoula was the target of a criminal investigation or part of the broader U.S. investigation into the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Libya during an attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi.

    The crude and provocative anti-Islam video, blamed in part for sparking protests against U.S. diplomatic missions, was promoted by another Egyptian-born Coptic Christian named Morris Sadek on his website.

    Copts make up a minority in Egypt where they have been victims of discrimination and sometimes attacks by Islamic extremists.

    A trailer for the amateurish film, posted on YouTube in July and later reposted after being translated into Arabic, portrays Muhammad, the most important prophet in Islam, variously as a womanizer, a homosexual and a child abuser.

    The translated clip, shown repeatedly on Egyptian television stations in recent weeks, was blamed for sparking protests across the Middle East and North Africa and was blamed for inciting an attacks on American diplomatic missions in several Middle Eastern cities.

    U.S. officials are also investigating the possibility that the deadly Libya attack was planned in advance to coincide with the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States by Islamist terrorists.

    Related content:

    Obama: Egypt not an ally of US, but not an enemy
    Timeline: Political fallout from the attack on diplomats in Libya
    The attack on the Libyan consulate, as it happened

    NBC's Kerry Sanders talks about the controversial pastor's history of provocative acts against Islam and how he may be tied to an inflammatory film that has sparked uproar within the global Muslim community.

    The mysterious origins of the film were the subject of intense reporting.

    The Associated Press was first to report that it had reached the filmmaker who said he was an Israeli-American real estate developer from California who had made the movie by raising $5 million from wealthy Jewish donors. It gradually emerged that the man, who went by "Sam Bacile," was using an alias. The film, tied to U.S.-based Christians with extreme anti-Islam views, was produced on a low budget in southern California using actors who were apparently unaware of the film’s ultimate purpose.

    Some of the information leading to Nakoula came from Morris Sadek, who is also an Egyptian-born American who had promoted the film on his website. Reporting in The Atlantic also connected the film to Steve Klein, a self-described militant Christian activist in Riverside, Calif., Klein indicated that the film maker contacted him as a consultant because Klein leads anti-Islam protests outside mosques and schools.

    The 13-minute English-language trailer for the film was posted on YouTube in July by an account registered to a Sam Bacile. It shows the cast performing a wooden dialogue, with insults cast as revelations about Muhammad dubbed over the top.

    The Quran forbids any depiction of Muhammad, and most Muslims regard any attempt to insult him as highly offensive. A Danish newspaper's 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of the prophet triggered riots in many Muslim countries.

    Why films and cartoons of Muhammad spark violence

    Actors: 'We were grossly misled'
    Cindy Lee Garcia, of Bakersfield, California, who appears briefly in clips of the film posted online, said she answered a casting call last year to appear in a movie titled "Desert Warrior."

    TODAY's Matt Lauer speaks with security analyst Michael Leiter about the likelihood that the attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya was a pre-meditated act by a group of al-Qaida sympathizers rather than a spontaneous uprising over an anti-Muslim Internet video.

    "It looks so unreal to me, it's like nothing that we even filmed was there. There was all this weird stuff there," Garcia told Reuters in a phone interview. 

    Garcia said the film was shot in the summer of 2011 inside a church near Los Angeles, with actors standing in front of a "green screen," which allows background images to be added in post-production. About 50 actors were involved, she said. 

    Libya pledges to help US catch American officials' killers

    An expired casting notice at Backstage.com listed a film named "Desert Warrior" that it described as a low-budget "historical Arabian Desert adventure film." None of the characters were identified in the casting call as Muhammad. 

    "They told me it was based on what it was like 2,000 years ago at the time of the Lord," Garcia said. "Like the time Christ was here."

    A source close to the cast and crew of the film told NBC News that "Bacile" misled the actors and production crew.

    "The entire crew and cast are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer," the source said. "We are 100 percent not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose. We are shocked by the drastic rewrites of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred."

     

    Slideshow: Anger over film spreads around Middle East

    Zoubeir Souissi / Reuters

    The U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed after protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad stormed the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, as protests spread across the region.

    Launch slideshow

     

    Nakoula's criminal background is the subject of mounting scrutiny in the wake of reports linking him to the anti-Islam movie.

    In the late 1990s he was convicted on intent to manufacture methamphetamine, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office confirmed.

    After his conviction, Nakoula was sentenced to one year in jail — and then resentenced for another one year term in April 2002 after violating his probation. That was seven years before Nakoula was arrested again on federal bank fraud charges involving alleged identity theft. After pleading no contest, he was convicted in federal court in June 2010,  sentenced to 21 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $794,700 in restitution.

    Court records show that in the federal identify theft case against him, Nakoula used multiple aliases, including "Youseff M. Basseley" and "Niolca Bacily," to commit bank fraud.

    Nakoula told the AP he was a Coptic Christian. Although denying he was "Bacile," Nakoula was quoted as saying the film's director supporting the concerns of Christian Coptics.

    Meanwhile, a film industry spokesman confirmed that a Duarte, California-based evangelical Christian group called "Media for Christ" received a one day permit last year to make the film, a Los Angeles film official confirms to NBC News.

    Media for Christ runs an Arabic language satellite TV station called "Way TV," according to the group's tax returns.

    "The Way TV provides its audience with prayers, sermons, and hymns 24/7 to prepare them for Christ's happy and long awaited second coming," the tax returns state.

    Media for Christ applied for and received the permit to make the film in Aug. 2011, listing the title then as "Desert Warriors," said a spokesman for Film LA, a non-profit that coordinates the awarding for film permits under contracts with the city and county of Los Angeles.

    The listed producer on the film was "Sam Bossil," but LA Film has no other information about him, the spokesman said. A woman who answered the phone at Media for Christ Thursday hung up the phone Thursday.

    Police patrolled the cul-de-sac in suburban Cerritos, Calif., where Nakoula is believed to live, NBCLosAngeles.com reported. Officers said the resident of the home asked for security after media descended on the two-story home.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • The attack on the Libyan consulate, as it happened

    The deaths of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador, are a grim reminder of the dangers that lurk in Libya. NBC's Steve Handelsman reports.

    By Catherine Chomiak and M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

    NBC News compiled this reconstruction of the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, after a briefing from senior U.S. officials, who asked not to be identified and cautioned that it was imprecise because it was based on preliminary field reports:

    Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

    10 p.m. Tuesday (4 p.m. ET): The compound, a temporary facility with a nearby annex, begins taking fire.

    10:15-10:45 p.m.: The attackers enter the compound and begin firing into the main building, setting it on fire. Mission security and Libyan guards respond. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, information management officer Sean Smith and a regional security officer are the only people in the main building at the time. At some point, they become separated because of the heavy smoke. The security officer makes it out safely.

    US won't rule out Islamist link in killing of US ambassador to Libya

    The security officer and other security personnel return to the burning building to rescue Stevens and Smith. Smith is already dead, and the rescuers pull his body from the building. They can't find Stevens before they are driven from the building by the fire and smoke. 

    10:45 p.m.: U.S. security personnel try to take back the main building, but they come under heavy fire and return to the mission annex, where 25 to 30 people are holed up.


    11:20 p.m.: U.S. and Libyan security personnel again try to take back the main building, this time successfully. They evacuate the rest of the personnel. 

    Tuesday night: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is briefed.

    12 midnight: The mission annex comes under fire, which continues for about two hours. Two Americans are killed, and two others are wounded. 

    3 a.m. Wednesday (9 p.m. ET Tuesday): The fighting is over, and U.S. and Libyan security forces regain control of the compound.

    Romney slams Obama over attacks on US officials in Libya, Egypt

    Aftermath: The body of Stevens, who was taken to a Benghazi hospital at an unknown time, is returned to U.S. personnel at the Benghazi airport. A plane arrives from Tripoli to evacuate all personnel back to the capital, including the three wounded and the remains of the four people who were killed. All diplomatic posts are ordered to review their security.

    US Ambassador Chris Stevens was 'courageous and exemplary,' Obama says

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  • US won't rule out Islamist militant link to attack, sends forces to Libya

    The deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya was staged by militants who set the building on fire. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    By M. Alex Johnson and Daniel Strieff, NBC News

    New in this version: U.S. sends Navy destroyers to Libyan coast; two other victims identified as State Department employees

    Updated at 7:08 p.m. ET: U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday that they couldn't rule out the possibility that al-Qaida-inspired Islamist militants were responsible for the attack in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi that killed Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans.

    Richard Engel, Jim Gold, Courtney Kube, Jim Miklaszewski, Andrea Mitchell, Kerry Sanders, Jeanee Vonessen and Robert Windrem of NBC News contributed to this report. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

    U.S. and Libyan officials, independent analysts and postings on Islamist websites from known militant activists suggested that the attack — which officials had previously suggested was retaliation for release of a movie critical of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad — may have been an orchestrated assault, noting that it occurred on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S.

    The State Department ordered all "non-emergency" U.S. personnel out of the country, but officials told NBC News that as of now there was no plan for a total U.S. evacuation.

    U.S. officials said the Navy is positioning two guided-missile destroyers off the Libyan coast to provide "additional military options" if needed.

    The USS LaBoon had already arrived off the coast of Libya, officials told NBC News. The USS McFaul was expected to arrive Thursday. Both are based at Norfolk, Va., and are listed as having crews of 338.

    Michael Leiter, former director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center and current NBC News terrorism expert, discusses the anti-U.S. interests that present difficulty for governments abroad.

     

    Attack on the Libya consulate, as it happened

     In addition, the Defense and State departments were considering sending additional Marines to other potential trouble spots, including Cairo and Kabul, which have both seen sectarian flare-ups against the U.S.

    Steven McDonald, a longtime friend of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, describes his friend's compassion, integrity and commitment.

    At a briefing for reporters, Libya's interim president, Mohammed el-Megarif, suggested that the attack was timed to coincide with the anniversary specifically to "destroy democracy in Libya."

    Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri released a video Tuesday marking the anniversary. In it, he called for Islamists to seek revenge for the killing by a U.S. drone strike of deputy al-Qaida leader Abu Yahya al-Libi in June.

    Online postings Wednesday from Islamist militants were celebrating the attack as payback for his death, said Evan Kohlmann, an Middle East and terrorism analyst for NBC News. One of the postings claimed responsibility for the attack in the name of Ansar al-Sharia, a Sunni Muslim militant faction.

    Slideshow: U.S. posts attacked in Libya and Egypt

    /

    The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed after protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad stormed the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

    Launch slideshow

    Follow live developments from Libya on BreakingNews.com

    Noman Benotman, a Libyan-born senior strategy analyst for the Quilliam Foundation, an antiterrorism research group in London, also said the organization's intelligence indicated that the attacks were "committed by uncontrollable jihadist groups," not by a protest mob that spontaneously erupted into violence.

    Quilliam said on its website that its sources, some of whom it said were in Benghazi itself, reported that about 20 militants carried out the attack using rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

    That appeared to square with an eyewitness account cited by Libya Herald, which quoted a demonstrator at the consulate as saying a protester fired a rocket-propelled grenade launcher at a police vehicle but hit the consulate building on Venezia Street, instead.

    The Voice of America, meanwhile, cited similar reports that "several dozen gunmen from the Islamist group Ansar al Sharia" may have carried out the attack.

    Esam Omran Al-fetori / Reuters

    PHOTOBLOG: People stand near a burnt car at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

    Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said "it would be premature to ascribe any motive to this reprehensible act," but other U.S. officials said they couldn't rule out the possibility of a link to al-Liby's death or the Sept. 11 anniversary, saying the attack was too sophisticated to have been spontaneous.

    In the aftermath, officials told NBC News that they were preparing to send as many as 200 Marines to Libya to bolster security around the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli. The Marines' Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team would be deployed from a Marine Amphibious Ready Group already positioned aboard a helicopter carrier in the North Arabian Sea, the officials said.

    Obama condemns attack
    President Barack Obama condemned the attack, in which the Americans were killed after protesters stormed the U.S. consulate Tuesday night in Benghazi.

    President Barack Obama vowed to bring the killers of the four Americans to justice. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    "Make no mistake: Justice will be done," Obama said Wednesday.

    Stevens, 52, was the first U.S. ambassador to be killed during an assignment since Adolph Dubs was slain in an exchange of gunfire during a kidnapping attempt in Afghanistan in 1979.

    The State Department identified a second victim as Sean Smith, a Foreign Service information management officer and father of two children. Smith had previously been posted to the U.S. Consulate in Montreal, the U.S. Mission in Canada confirmed.

    The State Department said the families of the two other victims were still being notified. U.S. officials would say only that they were employed by the State Department.

    Ambassador Stevens was 'courageous and exemplary,' Obama says

     "While the United States rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants," Obama said in a statement.


    Vice President Joe Biden, meanwhile, insisted the U.S. wouldn't be driven from the country.

    "We never have been, and we never will be, run off, period," Biden said at a campaign event in Dayton, Ohio. "That's not who we are."

    Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that the attack "should shock the people of all faiths around the world."

    "I ask myself, how could this happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction?" she said. "This question reflects just how complicated and, at times, how confounding the world can be."

    U.S. Muslims said they were concerned about possible retaliatory attacks on their mosques, the Washington-based Council on Arab-Islamic Relations said Wednesday as it also condemned the attacks.

    "We're starting to get hate calls, and we'd already seen a wave of anti-Muslim incidents," Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for CAIR in Washington, told NBC News. "Muslims have to feel insecure."

    Romney slams Obama over attacks on US officials in Libya, Egypt

    Stevens apparently asphyxiated by smoke
    Descriptions of Tuesday's attack depicted chaos and bloodshed, with Libyan security overrun and retreating.

    Mohammed el-Megarif, Libya's interim president, apologized to the U.S. for the deadly attack. ITV's Richard Pallot reports.

    Stevens died of severe asphyxiation, apparently from smoke, Ziad Abu Zeid, a Libyan doctor who treated him, told The Associated Press.

    Stevens was practically dead when he arrived close to 1 a.m. Wednesday (7 p.m. ET Tuesday), and "we tried to revive him for an hour and a half but with no success," Abu Zeid said. The ambassador was bleeding in his stomach because of the asphyxiation but had no other injuries, he said.

    Demonstrations in Benghazi and in Egypt broke out Tuesday following news reports about the anti-Islamic video, which — if a trailer posted on YouTube is representative — features an amateur cast performing a wooden dialogue of insults disguised as revelations about Muhammad.

    More Middle East & North Africa coverage on NBCNews.com

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    The diplomatic crisis in Libya and Egypt quickly turned political as the Obama and Romney campaigns traded statements overnight. NBC's Chuck Todd reports.

    The attacks were the first such assaults on U.S. diplomatic facilities in either country, at a time when both Libya and Egypt are struggling to overcome the turmoil following the ouster of their longtime leaders, Moammar Gadhafi and Hosni Mubarak, in uprisings last year.

    The events appeared to underscore how much the ground in the Middle East has shifted for Washington, which for decades had close ties with Arab dictators who could be counted on to muzzle dissent.

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  • 3 charged in Muhammad cartoonist murder plot

    By Associated Press

    STOCKHOLM -- A Swedish prosecutor on Tuesday charged three men with plotting to murder an artist who depicted the Prophet Muhammad as a dog.

    The men, aged 23 to 26 and of Somali and Iraqi origin, were arrested in the city of Goteborg on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

    According to the charges filed Tuesday, the men planned to stab to death artist Lars Vilks, who has faced numerous death threats over his drawing of Muhammad in 2007.

    An art gallery was evacuated in connection with the arrests, and police originally treated the case as a terror investigation. They later relabeled it as a murder plot.

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.