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Mob Raids Tunis Embassy, Clashes with Riot Police

An angry mob stormed the US embassy in Tunis, set fires and clashed with riot police. At least two people were killed and 28 injured in the assault, the latest in a series of attacks against US diplomatic missions by crowds upset by an anti-Islamic video.

Sep 14, 2012
Protesters run for cover during a demonstration in front of the U.S. Embassy in Tunis September 14, 2012. At least five protesters were wounded when Tunisian police opened fire on Friday to quell an assault on the U.S. embassy compound in the capital Tunis, a Reuters reporter said. It was not immediately clear if police fired live rounds or rubber bullets. A large fire erupted inside the compound which has been invaded by hundreds of people incensed by a U.S.-made film that demeans the Prophet Mohammad. REU
Protesters at a demonstration in front of the US Embassy in Tunis, Sept. 14, 2012. — REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi

TUNIS — An angry mob raided the US embassy in Tunis and clashed with police forces as they were protesting against a film mocking Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and allegedly produced by an American director. Official Tunisian sources said at least two people were killed and 28 wounded in the attack, the latest in a series of violent assaults on US diplomatic missions in several Arab countries, all motivated by the same outrage at the anti-Islam film. On Sept.11, four US diplomats were killed inside the US consulate in Tripoli, among them US Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Thousands of protesters had gathered outside the embassy north of the Tunisian capital after the Friday prayer and several climbed the outer wall.  They took down the American flag to raise a black flag on which was written the Muslim profession of faith: "There is not God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet," the Tunisian web news site Business News, a partner of Al-Monitor, reported. The site also said the American school in Tunis, located next to the embassy, had also been attacked and pillaged. Plumes of some were rising and floating overhead.

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