Protesters Encircle U.S. Embassy in Yemen

Hundreds of protesters encircled the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in San'a on Thursday, including a few who climbed over the embassy's main gate, as demonstrations against a film insulting the Muslim prophet Muhammad spread to a third day and another Arab country, the Wall Street Journal reported.
"Not our Prophet! He is a red line!" demonstrators shouted in unison. About five protesters were seen reaching the embassy inner main gate, where they tried to shatter the windows of the embassy's front guard post before Yemeni security forces pushed them back after a half-hour. Some protesters also burned the American flag.
No injuries were reported in the first hours of the demonstration. None of the protesters were seen to be armed and the majority made no effort to reach the embassy buildings themselves.
Yemeni security forces fired about a dozen warning shots and used batons to repel the demonstrators.
A senior Interior Ministry official said the hundreds of Yemeni security forces had orders to shoot any protester seen carrying a weapon near the embassy.
Yemen is the poorest country on the Arab peninsula and one of the most unstable.
Yemen's new government, aided by the United States and Britain, is fighting an active branch of al Qaeda.
The protests follow an attack Tuesday that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and days of demonstrations at the U.S. embassy in Cairo over the film.
Officials of Yemen's Islah religious fundamentalist political party denied calling Thursday's protests.