SANAA/CAIRO (Reuters) - Demonstrators attacked the U.S. embassies in Yemen and Egypt on Thursday in protest at a film they consider blasphemous to Islam, and American warships headed towards Libya after the U.S. ambassador there was killed in related violence this week. 
 
 In Libya, authorities said they had made four arrests in the investigation into the attack that killed ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americas in Benghazi on Tuesday. 
 
 President Barack Obama has vowed to bring to justice those responsible for the Benghazi attack, which U.S. officials said may have been planned in advance, possibly by an al Qaeda-linked group. 
 
 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington had nothing to do with the crudely made film posted on the Internet, which she called “disgusting and reprehensible.” 
 
 The amateurish production, entitled the “Innocence of Muslims,” and originating in the United States, portrays Mohammad as a womanizer, a homosexual and a child abuser. 
 
 For many Muslims, any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous and caricatures or other characterizations have in the past provoked violent protests across the Muslim world. 
 
 Demonstrations spread further on Thursday, with U.S. embassies again the targets of popular anger among Muslims questioning why the United States has failed to take action against the makers of the film. 
 
 Hundreds of Yemenis broke through the main gate of the heavily fortified U.S. embassy compound in the capital Sanaa, shouting “We sacrifice ourselves for you, Messenger of God.” They smashed windows of security offices outside the embassy and burned cars. 
 
 A security source said at least 15 people were wounded, some by gunfire, before the government ringed the area with troops. 
 
 In Egypt, protesters hurled stones at a police cordon around the U.S. embassy in central Cairo after climbing into the embassy compound and tearing down the American flag. The state news agency said 13 people were hurt in violence which erupted late on Wednesday, following initial protests on Tuesday. 
 
 Around 200 demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. embassy in Kuwait shouting slogans such as “God is great.” They hoisted banners, one of which bread in English: “USA stop the bullshit. Respect us.” 
 
 Kuwaiti riot police encircled the crowd of men protesting peacefully in their traditional Kuwaiti dress. 
 
 On Thursday, the U.S. consulate in Berlin was partially evacuated after an employee fell ill on opening a suspicious envelope. Bangladeshi Islamists tried to march on the U.S. embassy in Dhaka and Iranian students protested in Tehran. 
 
 Earlier in the week, there were protests outside U.S. missions in Tunisia, Morocco and Sudan. 
 
 The U.S. ambassador to Libya was killed during a protest against the film on Tuesday at the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi when Islamists armed with guns, mortars and grenades staged military-style assaults on the mission and a safe house refuge. 
 
 A Libyan doctor at a Benghazi hospital said Stevens died of smoke inhalation. U.S. information technology specialist Sean Smith also died at the consulate, while two other Americans were killed when a squad of U.S. troops sent by helicopter from Tripoli to rescue diplomats from the safe house came under mortar attack. 
 
 FIRST U.S. AMBASSADOR KILLED SINCE 1979 
 
 Stevens, 52, had spent a career operating in perilous places, mostly in the Arab world, and became the first American ambassador killed in an attack since Adolph Dubs, the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, died in a 1979 kidnapping attempt. 
 
 Tuesday’s incident, on what was the 11th anniversary of al Qaeda’s attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, has created an unwanted foreign policy crisis for Obama ahead of his bid for reelection in November. 
 
 Speaking at a campaign rally in Colorado on Thursday, Obama said he had ordered his administration to do whatever was necessary to protect Americans abroad and that aides had been in contact with other governments “to let them know they’ve got a responsibility to protect our citizens.” 
 
 The U.S. military dispatched two destroyers toward the Libyan coast, in what an official said was a move to give the administration flexibility for any future action. The first ship, the USS Laboon, was already in position and the other destroyer, the USS McFaul, was at least a day away, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. 
 
 “We don’t know if they are affiliated with a particular group or not, there are a lot of suspicions but the we have to go through with the investigation and find out who these people are and if they belong to a particular group, then we have to deal with that group.” 
 
 The U.S. military also dispatched a Marine Corps anti-terrorist team to boost security in Libya, whose leader Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in a U.S.-backed uprising last year. 
 
 Republican Mitt Romney, Obama’s challenger, criticized the government’s response to the crisis earlier this week, saying it was disgraceful to be seen to be apologizing for American values of free speech. 
 
 Obama’s campaign accused Romney of trying to score political points at a time of national tragedy and the challenger also provoked some criticism from within his own party. 
 
 Campaigning on Thursday, Romney stopped short of repeating the charge but said that under Obama the United States seemed to be at the mercy of world events rather than shaping them, and argued for a stronger military, at a time when U.S. armed forces are facing an unprecedented budget squeeze. 
 
 Obama’s administration again sought to calm Muslim tensions on Thursday. 
 
 Clinton said Washington rejected the film’s message absolutely, and added: “It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose: to denigrate a great religion and provoke rage.” 
 
 At the same time, Clinton noted the history of religious tolerance in the United States and its commitment to freedom of speech and said there was no justification for people to respond with violence. 
 
 “I know it is hard for some people to understand why the United States cannot or does not just prevent these kinds of reprehensible videos from ever seeing the light of day,” she said. “I would note that in today’s world, with today’s technologies, that is virtually impossible. 
 
 “But even if it were possible our country does have a long tradition of free expression which is enshrined in our constitution and our law. And we do not stop individual citizens from expressing their views no matter how distasteful they may be,” she added. 
 
 Protesters break the windows of the U.S. embassy in Sanaa September 13, 2012. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah 
 
 AL QAEDA LINK SEEN 
 
 Among the assailants in Benghazi, Libyans identified units of a heavily armed local Islamist group, Ansar al-Sharia, which sympathizes with al Qaeda and derides Libya’s U.S.-backed bid for democracy. 
 
 Former Libya militant commander Noman Benotman, now president of Britain’s Quilliam think tank, said Western officials were investigating a possible link with a paramilitary training camp about 100 miles south of the eastern Libyan town of Derna, near the Egyptian border. 
 
 U.S. officials said there were suggestions members of al Qaeda’s North Africa-based affiliate may have been involved. 
 
 Libya’s new Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagour confirmed arrests had been made in the investigation into the attack and more could be expected. 
 
 “We don’t know if they are affiliated with a particular group or not, there are a lot of suspicions but ... we have to go through with the investigation and find out who these people are and if they belong to a particular group, then we have to deal with that group.” 
 
 “We ... assure the people that we are going after them, that we are going to bring them to justice and they have to be punished for their act. This is not acceptable. 
 
 A spokesman for Ansar al-Sharia denied it had played a role in the attack on the U.S. consulate and blamed the violence on firing on the protesters by consulate staff. 
 
 “It was a peaceful protest, and the firing on the protesters inflamed the situation and gave it a different course,” Hani Mansouri told a news conference in Benghazi. 
 
 At the same time, Mansouri said the United States should have had the wisdom to evacuate its ambassador on the September 11 anniversary as a precaution. 
 
 Yemen, a key U.S. ally, is home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), viewed by Washington as the most dangerous branch of the militant network established by Osama bin Laden. 
 
 Clashes near the U.S. embassy there flared up on and off but died down as night fell. Residents living nearby said they feared more violent protests after Friday prayers. 
 
 “It is a dangerous situation,” one resident told Reuters. “I cannot wait until the morning to move my family to another neighborhood until the situation is totally calm.” 
 
 In Nigeria, the government put police on high alert and stepped up security around all foreign missions, also fearing an Islamist backlash, possibly after Friday prayers. 
 
 An actress in the California production that has provoked the unrest said the video as it appeared bore no resemblance to the original filming. She said she had not been aware it was about the Prophet Mohammad. 
 
 Many Muslim states focused their condemnation on the film and will be concerned about preventing a repeat of the fallout seen after publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. This touched off riots in the Middle East, Africa and Asia in 2006 in which at least 50 people were killed. 
 
 Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called the making of the movie a “devilish act” but said he was certain those involved in its production were a very small minority. 
 
 The U.S. embassy in Kabul has appealed to Afghan leaders for help in “maintaining calm” and Afghanistan ordered the YouTube site shut down so Afghans would not be able to see the film. YouTube, owned by Google Inc, said it would not remove the clip but had blocked access in Egypt and Libya. 
 
 Slideshow (17 Images) 
 
 Libyan leader Mohammed Magarief and Yemeni President Mansour Hadi both apologized to the United States over the attacks and Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Mursi condemned them on television while also rejecting any “insult to the Prophet”. 
 
 Russian President Vladimir Putin, a sharp critic of last year’s Western military intervention in Libya and of Western backing for Syria’s rebels, called Stevens’ death a tragedy and said he believed Western support for rebels in Arab countries was causing chaos. ||||| Damaged vehicles are seen as protesters gather outside the U.S. embassy in Sanaa September 13, 2012. 
 
 A man gestures to the camera as protesters try to break a window of a vehicle outside the U.S. embassy in Sanaa September 13, 2012. 
 
 Protesters gather outside the U.S. embassy in Sanaa September 13, 2012. Hundreds of Yemeni demonstrators stormed the U.S. embassy in Sanaa on Thursday in protest against a film they consider blasphemous to Islam, and security guards tried to hold them off by firing into the... 
 
 SANAA Hundreds of Yemeni demonstrators stormed the U.S. embassy compound in Sanaa on Thursday in protest at a film they consider blasphemous to Islam, and clashes with security forces killed at least one person and injured 15 others. 
 
 Young protesters, shouting "We sacrifice ourselves for you, Messenger of God", smashed windows of the security offices outside the embassy with stones and burned at least five cars as they broke through the main gate of the heavily fortified compound in eastern Sanaa, the witnesses said. 
 
 "We can see a fire inside the compound and security forces are firing in the air. The demonstrators are fleeing and then charging back," one witness told Reuters. 
 
 Witnesses said embassy guards fired in the air to keep the protesters at bay. Riot control forces later used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the demonstrators. 
 
 A local hospital official said the body of one person had been brought in from the scene of the clashes and medics were trying to determine the cause of death. A security source said at least 15 people were wounded, some from bullets and 12 people were arrested. 
 
 "All embassy personnel are safe and accounted for," an embassy spokesman told Reuters by telephone. 
 
 The protest followed Tuesday night's storming of the United States Consulate and a safe house in Benghazi, where the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other staff were killed. President Barack Obama said the perpetrators would be tracked down and ordered two destroyers to the Libyan coast. 
 
 Protesters also attacked the U.S. embassy in Egypt and there were fears demonstrations would spread to other countries in the Muslim world. 
 
 Demonstrators blamed the United States for the film, posted on YouTube under several titles, including "Innocence of Muslims". The film depicted the Prophet Mohammad in terms seen as blasphemous by Muslims and was condemned by Washington. 
 
 The film briefly united Houthi Shi'ite Muslim rebels based in northern Yemen with their traditional rivals, Sunni Muslim Salafists, at the protest. 
 
 Witnesses said security forces in Yemen made no effort to stop the demonstrators when they first began marching towards the embassy compound holding banners declaring 'God is Greatest'. Some scaled the embassy gate as tires blazed outside. 
 
 The protesters threw stones and some smashed light bulbs and signs before attacking the security offices and the compound. Yemen state television showed protesters using a forklift truck to remove a vehicle, while one of them battered it with a stick. 
 
 REPEATED ATTACKS 
 
 President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi offered "a personal apology" to President Barack Obama over the incident and ordered a swift investigation. 
 
 Hadi blamed "mob-like groups" bent on harming Yemeni-U.S. relations for the attack and promised to ensure they are properly punished, state news agency Saba said. 
 
 A Yemeni security source said Interior Minister Abdul Qader Qahtan personally oversaw the deployment of riot control forces to the area, to clear the protesters from inside the compound. 
 
 Dozens of youths later regrouped and tried to break into the compound from the back, but the Yemeni government pushed extra armored forces to the area, ringing the whole district where the U.S. embassy, the British embassy and a hotel often used by foreign diplomats is located. 
 
 Yemen, a key U.S. ally, is struggling against multiple challenges since mass protests forced long-serving President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down last year. 
 
 The United States, eager to help Yemen recover from the upheaval that put the state on the verge of collapse, has said it would provide $345 million in security, humanitarian and development assistance this year, over double last year's aid. 
 
 Yemen is home of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which is viewed by Washington as the most dangerous branch of the militant network established by Osama bin Laden. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Sami Aboudi in Dubai and Raissa Kasolowsky in Abu Dhabi, editing by Philippa Fletcher) ||||| SANAA | 
 
 SANAA (Reuters) - A platoon of U.S. Marines sent to Yemen are on a temporary deployment and their only role will be to protect the U.S. Embassy after it was stormed by demonstrators, a senior government official said. 
 
 The deployment of foreign troops is a politically sensitive issue for Arab governments who fear such a move could provoke a backlash from Islamist militants. 
 
 The Pentagon on Friday said it had sent a platoon of Marines to Yemen after demonstrators stormed the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa in protest over an anti-Muslim film made in the United States. A Yemeni official confirmed about 50 Marines had arrived. 
 
 "Because of the split in the army and the security forces, we allowed a limited number of Marine forces to protect the American embassy only," Yemen's Prime Minister Mohammed Basindwa's media adviser Rajeh Bady told Reuters. 
 
 "They are here temporarily for a limited amount of time and they will leave Yemen," he said. 
 
 In Iraq, the 2003 U.S. invasion was exploited by al Qaeda and other militant groups, and bitter memories of the violations committed by U.S. soldiers and contractors during the eight-year occupation are still vivid. 
 
 Clips of the film "Innocence of Muslims" posted on the Internet show an amateurish production portraying the Prophet Mohammad as a womanizer, a homosexual and a child abuser. 
 
 It provoked an outcry among Muslims, who deem any depiction of the Prophet as blasphemous and triggered violent attacks across the region on embassies in countries including Sudan, Tunisia and Egypt. 
 
 On Saturday, Afghanistan's Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack on a base which killed two U.S. Marines, saying it was in response to the film. 
 
 Four U.S. officials including the ambassador to Libya were killed in the east Libyan city of Benghazi last week after anger over the film boiled over across the region. 
 
 Hundreds of Yemeni demonstrators stormed the U.S. embassy compound in Sanaa last week in protest and clashed with security forces. 
 
 No embassy staff were hurt, but the mission said it expected more protests against the film and that it would be closing its consular services on Saturday. 
 
 Yemen's Interior Ministry said on its website on Sunday it has arrested 13 suspects involved. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack. 
 
 Yemen has been in turmoil since a popular uprising ousted veteran ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh in February. President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government is trying to re-establish order and unify the army, which is divided between Saleh's allies and foes. 
 
 It faces threats from Islamist militants, southern secessionists and a Shi'ite rebel movement in the north. 
 
 A U.S. ally, Yemen is home to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, a group viewed by Washington as the most dangerous branch of the militant network established by Osama bin Laden. 
 
 Washington, which has pursued a campaign of assassination by drone and missile against suspected al Qaeda members, backed a military offensive in May to recapture areas of Abyan province. 
 
 Militants have struck back with a series of bombings and killings. 
 
 (Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Rania El Gamal; editing by Jason Neely) 
 
 (This story was refiled to corrects Bady's title to adviser for PM not President in the fourth paragraph)
– US Marines are in Yemen as protesters continue to throng around the US embassy there, the AP reports. An elite Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team arrived today, as security forces continued to fire live rounds and tear gas into a crowd numbering around 2,000. The same type of team was also sent to Libya in the wake of violence there that ended with US Ambassador Chris Stevens' death. Protests over an anti-Islam film are heating up throughout the Muslim world today: Thousands of protesters are outside the US embassy in Tunis, and some are climbing the walls to raise a Muslim flag. Police have been firing into the crowd, and a large, black smoke cloud was recently seen rising around the US embassy. Protesters also surrounded the German and British embassies in the capital of Sudan, angry over anti-Muslim graffiti that allegedly appeared on Berlin mosques. Some stormed the German embassy, burning cars and setting fires; part of the building was in flames, but the employees are safe. The Atlantic Wire is keeping track of the protests on a useful interactive map.