Thousands of angry Kashmiri Muslims protested Friday against an anti-Islam film, burning U.S. flags and calling President Barack Obama a `'terrorist," while the top government cleric here reportedly demanded Americans leave the volatile Indian-controlled region immediately. 
 
 Kashmiri Muslims burn a mock American flag during a protest against an anti-Islam film called "Innocence of Muslims" that ridicules Islam's Prophet Muhammad, in Srinagar, India, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012.... (Associated Press) 
 
 Kashmiri Muslims shout slogans during a protest against an anti-Islam film called "Innocence of Muslims" that ridicules Islam's Prophet Muhammad, in Srinagar, India, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Mukhtar... (Associated Press) 
 
 Indonesian Muslims shout slogans as they hold a banner which reads "Prophet Muhammad is symbol of Islam" during a protest against an anti-Islam film that has sparked anger among followers, outside the... (Associated Press) 
 
 Philippine National Police anti-riot unit prepare to secure the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Philippines on Friday Sept. 14, 2012. U.S. embassies across the world ramped up security Thursday following an attack... (Associated Press) 
 
 Kashmiri Muslim protesters throw stones at Indian policemen during a protest in Srinagar, India, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012. The protest was held against an anti-Islam film called "Innocence of Muslims" that... (Associated Press) 
 
 At least 15,000 people took part in more than two dozen protests across Kashmir, chanting `'Down with America" and `'Down with Israel" in some of the largest anti-American demonstrations against the film in Asia. 
 
 The low-budget film "Innocence of Muslims" produced by a filmmaker in the United States ridicules Islam and depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman. American and Middle Eastern leaders have denounced the film and condemned acts of violence. In Libya, the American ambassador and three other staff members were killed when the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was attacked. 
 
 Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir have asked the Indian government to block online clips from the film, the region's top police official Ashok Prasad said Friday. 
 
 U.S. and Israeli flags were burned at many of the protests across the Muslim-majority region. Hundreds of lawyers in the main city of Srinagar stopped work and marched out of court and into the streets in protest. One protester held a poster with Obama's picture and the words `'real terrorist." 
 
 "The U.S. citizens visiting Kashmir should leave immediately as the sentiments of the Muslims have been hurt by these pictures," Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad, Kashmir's state-appointed cleric, was quoted as telling the Kashmir Reader, an English daily. 
 
 In response to the statement, U.S. Embassy officials sent out a message reiterating its call for citizens to stay away from Kashmir, a volatile territory where many oppose India's rule. Police said they were investigating the cleric's statement. 
 
 Though many local separatists groups disavowed the threat to Americans, local authorities put five top separatist leaders under house arrest, a common action when protests or violence is expected. 
 
 Jamat-e-Islami, Kashmir's biggest Islamic party, demanded the U.S. government crack down on the filmmakers. 
 
 "If America is true in its claim of being against any kind of religious blasphemy, then it should lose no time in taking stern action against these enemies of humanity," a statement from the party said. 
 
 Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, about 200 protesters in Jakarta chanted slogans and held up signs in a largely peaceful protest outside the heavily guarded U.S. Embassy. American diplomatic outposts increased security worldwide this week after clips of the film went viral online and sparked violent protests in the Middle East. 
 
 "We came here because we want the U.S. to punish whoever was involved with the film," protester Abdul Jabar Umam said. "They should know that we are willing to die to defend the honor of our Prophet." 
 
 About 20 protesters outside the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, shouted "Allahu akbar!" and handed reporters a letter addressed to the U.S. ambassador expressing their anger over the movie and calling for greater respect for religions. 
 
 Indonesia's government has been working to block access to clips of the film online, and a prominent cleric has urged calm. But others are calling for Muslims worldwide to defend the dignity of the Prophet Muhammad. 
 
 Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, a branch of the international network that advocates a worldwide Islamic state and the ones who organized the protest, on its website blamed the U.S. government for allowing the film to be produced and released, calling it "an act of barbarism that cannot go unpunished." 
 
 "Why do these people seek problems by disturbing our peace? They knew the risk they were facing by angering people," said Muhammad Al-Khaththath, leader of another hardliner group. "There's only one way to stop our anger: Give the death penalty to the filmmaker and the actors." 
 
 ____ 
 
 Associated Press writers Sean Yoong in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Niniek Karminia in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report. ||||| The Obama administration braced for another potential eruption of violent demonstrations in parts of the Muslim world after Friday's weekly prayers _ traditionally a time of protest in the Middle East and North Africa _ in the wake of the Sept. 11 attack against the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the ambassador and three other Americans. 
 
 Police, unseen, use water cannons to disperse protesters near the U.S. Embassy during a demonstration about a film ridiculing Islam's Prophet Muhammad, in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012. Yemen's... (Associated Press) 
 
 Protesters run as police, unseen, open fire into the air near the U.S. Embassy during a protest about a film ridiculing Islam's Prophet Muhammad, in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012. Yemen's president... (Associated Press) 
 
 Angry demonstrations over an anti-Islam video already have occurred in Egypt and Yemen, and officials theorize that well-armed Libyan extremists hijacked a similar protest in Benghazi, where several Libyan security guards also were killed. The U.S. put all of its diplomatic missions overseas on high alert, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered an explicit denunciation of the video as the administration sought to pre-empt further turmoil at its embassies and consulates. 
 
 "The United States government had absolutely nothing to do with this video," she said before a meeting with the foreign minister of Morocco at the State Department. "We absolutely reject its content and message." 
 
 "To us, to me personally, this video is disgusting and reprehensible," Clinton said. "It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose: to denigrate a great religion and to provoke rage." 
 
 U.S. officials said they suspect that the attack at the Benghazi consulate, which had also been the target of an unsuccessful attack in June, may have been only tangentially related to the film. 
 
 They also stressed there had been no advance warning or intelligence to suggest a threat in Libya that would warrant boosting security, even on the 11th anniversary of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. 
 
 "As we did with all of our missions overseas, in advance of the September 11 anniversary and as we do every year, we did evaluate the threat stream and we determined that the security at Benghazi was appropriate for what we knew," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. 
 
 The intelligence leading up to the attacks will be examined to "see if there was any way of forecasting this violence," as in any violent incident, House Intelligence Committee member Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said in an interview Thursday. But he said the focus now "has to be on finding out who is responsible and bringing them to justice." 
 
 President Barack Obama, speaking a campaign event in Golden, Colorado, also vowed that the perpetrators would be punished. 
 
 "I want people around the world to hear me," he said. "To all those who would do us harm: No act of terror will go unpunished. I will not dim the light of the values that we proudly present to the rest of the world. No act of violence shakes the resolve of the United States of America." 
 
 As of Thursday morning, there was no intelligence indicating that what happened in Benghazi was planned, according to two U.S. officials briefed on the investigation into the attack. Intelligence officials said they believe it's more likely that the attack was "opportunistic or spontaneous," with militants taking advantage of the demonstration to launch the assault. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation publicly. 
 
 There is also no evidence that the attack was tied to 9/11, one of the officials said. But the Libyan-based militant group Ansar al Sharia is the leading suspect for carrying out the violence, possibly with help from al-Qaida's main African-based offshoot, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. The officials said it may be hard to determine definitively which group was responsible, because many militants are members of both. 
 
 Libyan officials arrested an unspecified number of militants suspected of taking part in the attack and they were closely monitoring others to see whether they are linked to a group. 
 
 Despite the belief that the militants who hit the consulate did so separately from the protests over the film, U.S. officials are deeply concerned that extremists may take advantage of non-violent demonstrations to copycat the Benghazi raid, or that otherwise peaceful protesters may be incited to attack because of the video, particularly on Friday. 
 
 It's virtually impossible to predict when a crowd might form and turn violent, according to retired U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte, who served as chief of mission at five posts, including Iraq, and is a former director of national intelligence. 
 
 "These things can be mobilized on the spur of the moment, set off by a spark," especially in places such as Egypt and Libya where the ruling strongmen have just fallen, Negroponte said Thursday. "When you get rid of authoritarian regimes, there's little or no institutional framework left. ...That's why there's disorder and chaos" that is so easily hijacked, he said. 
 
 U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday denounced the violence, and also the provocative video. "Nothing justifies such killings and attacks," Ban said in a statement, adding that he condemns "the hateful film that appears to have been deliberately designed to sow bigotry and bloodshed." 
 
 Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood called for demonstrations after Friday prayers as did authorities in Iran and the Gaza strip. Large protests were expected in Baghdad and Iraq's second-largest city, Basra, as well as Amman, Jordan. Israel was stepping up security in anticipation of demonstrations after Muslim prayers. 
 
 The White House said it was prepared for more protests but stressed that any violence would be unjustified. 
 
 "It is important to note that as these protests are taking place in different countries around the world, responding to the movie, that Friday, tomorrow, has historically been a day when there are protests in the Muslim world," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters in Colorado. "And we are watching very closely for developments that could lead to more protests. We anticipate that they may continue." 
 
 While rejecting the content of the video, Clinton stressed that no matter how offensive it is, the film cannot be used as an excuse for violence like that seen in Egypt, where a mob breached the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on Wednesday, and in Yemen, where demonstrators tried to storm the embassy compound in Sanaa on Thursday. 
 
 "There is no justification, none at all, for responding to this video with violence," Clinton said. "We condemn the violence that has resulted in the strongest terms. ... It is especially wrong for violence to be directed against diplomatic missions. These are places whose very purpose is peaceful: to promote better understanding across countries and cultures." 
 
 She then reminded foreign governments that they have a responsibility to protect embassies. 
 
 Around the world, U.S. missions issued warnings to Americans about demonstrations that could turn violent. More than 50 embassies and consulates have released such alerts since Wednesday, the State Department said. ||||| Angry demonstrations against an anti-Islam film made in the US have spread to several countries across the Middle East and North Africa. 
 
 
 
 Clashes between police and demonstrators near the US embassy in Sanaa on Thursday killed four people, a security official said. 
 
 
 
 "Four people were killed and 34 others were wounded in the clashes that lasted from morning until late in the evening" in the area around the US embassy in Sanaa, the official said. 
 
 Earlier on Thursday, a security official said that Yemeni police shot dead a protester in confrontations outside the embassy, shortly after ejecting crowds that briefly stormed the mission's compound. 
 
 The protesters removed the embassy's sign on the outer wall and brought down the US flag and burned it, according to witnesses. 
 
 A number of diplomatic vehicles were torched as security forces used water cannons and warning shots in a bid to drive them out. 
 
 In Egypt, 224 people were injured in protests, eight of whom needed to be transfered to hospital, the health ministry said. 
 
 
 
 In Libya, where the US ambassador and three embassy staff were killed during protests in Benghazi on Tuesday, officials said they had made "four arrests" over the attack. 
 
 
 
 In the Iranian capital, Tehran, up to 500 people protested over the issue chanting "Death to America!" and death to the movie's director, an AFP photographer at the scene said. 
 
 The rally, near the Swiss embassy that handles US interests in the absence of US-Iran diplomatic ties, ended peacefully two hours later. 
 
 
 
 US flags burned 
 
 Meanwhile, Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi has condemned the film that has sparked an outcry in his country. 
 
 "We Egyptians reject any kind of assault or insult against our prophet. I condemn and oppose all who... insult our prophet," Morsi, on an official visit to Brussels, said in remarks broadcast by Egyptian state television. 
 
 President Morsi appealed for calm, saying Egyptians "reject any kind of assault" against Prophet Muhammad 
 
 "[But] it is our duty to protect our guests and visitors from abroad... I call on everyone to take that into consideration, to not violate Egyptian law... to not assault embassies," he added. 
 
 Egyptians have clashed with police outside US embassy in the capital, Cairo, for the third day. 
 
 About 30 people have been injured, including more than 10 riot police in the overnight clashes, as the fallout from a film ridiculing Islam's prophet continued to rage on Thursday. 
 
 Police have used tear gas to disperse the crowd, as interior ministry said at least 12 people have been arrested. 
 
 American flags were also burned in Tunisia, outside the US embassy in the capital, Tunis. 
 
 Police fired tear gas at demonstrators who shouted their opposition to the film, and chanted slogans against the US. 
 
 A small crowd also burned an American flag in Gaza City where Hamas, the elected government there, has condemned the film. 
 
 Despite the Egyptian government's call for calm, protesters chanted in the streets and fires burned. 
 
 Innocence of Muslims, the film that mocked Prophet Muhammad, was allegedly produced in the US by a filmmaker with ties to Coptic Christian groups, and excerpted on YouTube with dubbing in Arabic. 
 
 On Wednesday, about 200 demonstrators took part in protests in the Egyptian capital. 
 
 They rallied into the night chanting "leave Egypt" but there was however no repeat of the previous day's events when angry crowds climbed the walls of the complex and tore down an American flag, which they replaced briefly with a black, Islamist flag. 
 
 YouTube block 
 
 Meanwhile, YouTube, the video website owned by Google Inc, has said it will not remove the film clip, but it has blocked access to it in those countries. 
 
 Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan reports on US-Middle East relations following protests 
 
 The Afghan government has ordered an indefinite ban on YouTube to prevent access to the film deemed offensive to Muslims, officials said on Thursday. 
 
 The US prosecutor-general said on Wednesday that four people were being questioned after Tuesday's events. 
 
 Nine Coptic Egyptian-Americans were also put on an airport watch list. They are believed to have contributed to the production of the anti-Islam film that led to the embassy protest. 
 
 The man behind the protests told Al Jazeera he just wanted to combat insults against Islam through legal and peaceful means. Wesam Abdel Wareth, the protest organiser, said his group was not happy that young people who joined their protest brought down the US flag. 
 
 He also said there was no co-ordination with protesters in Libya, and he condemned the violence there. 
 
 On Tuesday, Egypt's prestigious Al-Azhar mosque condemned a symbolic "trial" of the Prophet organised by a US group, including Terry Jones, a Christian pastor who triggered riots in Afghanistan in 2010 by threatening to burn the Quran. 
 
 But it was not immediately clear whether the event sponsored by Jones also prompted the embassy events. 
 
 Egypt 'neither enemy, nor ally' 
 
 
 
 Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has called the leaders of Egypt and Libya to discuss security co-operation following the violence in Cairo and Benghazi, the White House has said. 
 
 Iraqi supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr burn Israeli and US flags in the Iraqi city of Kut [AFP] 
 
 Obama urged Egypt to uphold its commitments to defend US diplomatic facilities and personnel and called on Libya to work with US authorities to bring those behind the deadly attack on the US consulate to justice. 
 
 Morsi promised Egypt "would honour its obligation to ensure the safety of American personnel", the White House said. 
 
 Obama told Morsi that while "he rejects efforts to denigrate Islam ... there is never any justification for violence against innocents". 
 
 Whatever the cause, 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 crush dissent. 
 
 Obama's administration in recent weeks had appeared to overcome some of its initial caution after the election of Morsi, offering his government desperately needed debt relief and backing for international loans. 
 
 Egypt is neither an ally nor an enemy of the United States, Obama said on Wednesday. 
 
 "I don't think that we would consider them an ally, but we don't consider them an enemy," Obama said in excerpts of an interview with Telemundo aired by MSNBC. ||||| Britain's Foreign Office says police in Sudan are confronting a protest outside the country's embassy in Khartoum, amid protests across the Muslim world over an anti-Islam film produced in the United States that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad. 
 
 FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012 file photo, an Egyptian woman holds a black flag with Islamic inscription in Arabic that reads, "No God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet," in front of the... (Associated Press) 
 
 An Egyptian protester throws a gas canister away during clashes near the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012. Protesters clashed with police near the U.S. Embassy in Cairo for the third... (Associated Press) 
 
 Egyptian protesters clash with riot police near the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012. Protesters clashed with police near the U.S. Embassy in Cairo for the third day in a row. Egypt's... (Associated Press) 
 
 Egyptian police fire tear gas at protesters during clashes near the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012. Protesters clashed with police near the U.S. Embassy in Cairo for the third... (Associated Press) 
 
 Egyptian protesters run for cover from tear gas during clashes near the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012. Protesters clashed with police near the U.S. Embassy in Cairo for the third... (Associated Press) 
 
 Egyptian protesters throw stones during clashes near the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012. Protesters clashed with police near the U.S. Embassy in Cairo for the third day in a row.... (Associated Press) 
 
 The ministry said Friday that police were at the scene outside its mission, which neighbors Germany's Sudan embassy in Khartoum East. 
 
 "We can confirm an ongoing demonstration outside the British Embassy in Khartoum. Sudanese police are at the scene," the ministry said in a statement. 
 
 The ministry could not immediately confirm how many staff were inside the mission, or whether they are all accounted for. 
 
 THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. 
 
 Egyptian riot police clashed with protesters angry over an anti-Islam film blocks away from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo as the president went on state TV and appealed to Muslims to protect embassies, trying to patch up strained relations with the United States. 
 
 Several hundred protesters massed in Cairo's Tahrir Square after weekly Muslim Friday prayers and tore up an American flag, waving a black, Islamist flag. When protesters tried to move toward the embassy, several blocks away, they were confronted by lines of police who fired tear gas. 
 
 "With our soul, our blood, we will avenge you, our Prophet," they chanted. 
 
 Ahead of the clashes, Islamist President Mohammed Morsi spoke for more than seven minutes on state TV, his most direct public move to contain protests since an angry crowd assaulted the embassy Tuesday night, scaling its walls and tearing down the American flag. 
 
 "It is required by our religion to protect our guests and their homes and places of work," Morsi said. "So I call on all to consider this, consider the law, and not attack embassies, consulates, diplomatic missions or Egyptian property that is private or public." 
 
 He denounced the killing of the American ambassador in Libya, who died in an attack Tuesday night on the U.S. Consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi along with three other Americans. 
 
 "This is something we reject and Islam rejects. To God, the attack on a person to Allah is bigger an attack on the Kaaba," he said, referring to Islam's holiest site in Mecca. 
 
 The region is bracing itself for more protests after traditional mid-day Friday prayers over the anti-Islam film produced in the United States called "Innocence of Muslims." The movie ridicules the Prophet Muhammad, portraying him as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester. 
 
 Morsi's own Muslim Brotherhood group has called for peaceful protests to denounce the film. 
 
 A firebrand cleric with the beard of a Salafi Muslim, known for their ultraconservative views, blasted the film and in his sermon in Cairo's Tahrir Square said it was upon Muslims to defend Islam and its prophet. 
 
 Protesters have been clashing in Cairo with police since the unrest Tuesday night. More than 240 people have been injured in the clashes, including a number of policemen, and 31 people have been arrested. 
 
 In Sudan, a prominent sheikh urged people on state radio to protest outside the main mosque in Khartoum. Sheikh Mohammed Jizouly said protesters would then move to the German Embassy in the city center to protest alleged anti-Muslim scrawling on mosques in Berlin and then to the US embassy, just outside the capital, to protest the film. 
 
 "America has long been an enemy to Islam and to Sudan," Jizouly said. 
 
 In Israel, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police have boosted the number of officers patrolling east Jerusalem and Jerusalem's old city to thwart potentially violent protests following Muslim prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site. Protesters are expected to march to the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem. 
 
 A small, peaceful demonstration was held Friday outside the U.S. Embassy in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. 
 
 A prominent cleric in Indonesia has urged Muslims there to remain calm despite their anger about the film. But Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, a branch of the international network that advocates a worldwide Islamic state, on its website blamed the U.S. government for allowing the film to be produced and released, calling it "an act of barbarism that cannot go unpunished." 
 
 Meanwhile, a Libyan airport official said all flights to and from the eastern city of Benghazi were canceled due to security concerns. The nearest airport is 200 kilometers away. The airport official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. 
 
 Benghazi is where the attack on the U.S. consulate took place Tuesday. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Additional reporting by Esam Mohamed in Tripoli, Ahmed Al-Haj in Sanaa, Yemen, Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia.
– Clashes between police and protesters angry over an anti-Islam film continued for the fourth day today, and US embassies were bracing for more protests in the Islamic world as traditional Friday prayers commence. Updates from Al Jazeera, AFP, NPR, and the AP: Libya: The airspace over Benghazi has been declared a no-fly zone after the death of US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in violence there, but there have been no recent reports of major violence. Egypt: Security forces are blocking the route to the embassy as hundreds protest. More than 200 people were injured and at least 12 have been arrested. The Muslim Brotherhood initially called for a nationwide protest of the film, but changed its mind after violence escalated. Yemen: Four were killed in Sanaa yesterday, including one protester shot dead by police, as 2,000 protesters were blocked from the US embassy. Iran: As many as 500 people protested the movie in Tehran, chanting slogans against America and against the film's director, but the protest ended peacefully. Other cities: American flags were burned outside the US embassy in the Tunisian capital, in Gaza City, and in Afghanistan. There were demonstrations in Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur, Kashmir, and Sudan, and more protests are expected in Iraq, Jordan, and Israel. Google has not removed clips from the anti-Islam film, Innocence of Muslims, from YouTube, but has blocked access to the clips in the protesting countries.