Egyptian protesters scale wall of U.S. Embassy in Cairo, pull down American flag It was not immediately clear how many people were inside the embassy at the time of the incident or if any arrests were made. Later in the evening, the Egyptian military sealed the entrances to the embassy to secure it from the still ongoing protest, Al-Ahram newspaper reported. "We are, obviously, working with Egyptian security to try to restore order at the embassy," Nuland said. We all want to see peaceful protests, which is not what happened outside the U.S. mission, so we're trying to restore calm now. Nuland downplayed any significance of the protest to U.S.-Egyptian relations. "I think the bigger picture is one of the United States supporting Egypt's democratic transition and the Egyptian government very much welcoming and working with us on the support that we have to offer," she said. The security breach, which came on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, appeared to catch both the United States and Egyptian security forces by surprise. Shortly before the protesters went over the wall, witnesses said few Egyptian police or military officers were nearby. Local media estimated that about 2,000 people participated in the protest, though in video footage of the incident only about a dozen appeared to have scaled the embassy wall. Protests at the U.S. Embassy are a regular feature of life in Cairo, where many people are suspicious of the country and resent it for its support for Israel. But no previous protests have actually breached the embassy compound. A spokesman for the embassy had no immediate comment. The embassy is in central Cairo, just a few blocks from Tahrir Square, and is a complex of several buildings that is surrounded by high white walls. Usually, police check vehicles in the streets surrounding the embassy, and cars have to pass through moveable barricades. The incident called to mind a breach of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo in September 2011, in which protesters scaled the apartment building in which it was housed, pulled down the Israeli flag and broke into the embassy itself, trapping several workers inside. After that incident, most Israeli embassy staff were temporarily evacuated from the country, seriously disrupting relations between the two cnations. The United States also treated the Israeli Embassy incident with major concern, evaluating the security plans at its own embassy in Cairo. Many of the protesters at the U.S. Embassy Tuesday said that they were associated with the Salafist political parties Al Nour and Al Asala. Salafism is an extremely conservative branch of Islam. "We are speaking out and will never be tolerant toward any curses for our prophet," said Moaz Abdel Kareem, 37, who had a long beard typical of followers of the Salafist movement and was carrying a black flag. The protesters who scaled the wall replaced the U.S. flag with a black flag with an Islamic inscription. The protest was inspired at least in part by an allegations of an anti-Islamic film in the United States. Several protesters said that their preachers had told them to come out to demonstrate in front of the embassy on Tuesday. Allegations of the film have been in the Egyptian media for several days. It was not immediately clear what film they were referring to. AP said it was a video promoted by an anti-Muslim Egyptian Christian in the U.S. Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Egypt had condemned insults to religion, saying in a statement that "we firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others." A spokesman for Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi did not respond to telephone calls requesting comment. But a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Morsi is a member, said that the United States should do a better job of protecting Islam. "It isn't a matter of freedom of speech," said Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Gozlan. It's a matter of a holy Islamic symbol. Tabei reported from Cairo. Ingy Hassieb in El-Arish, Egypt contributed to this report.