Violence spreads in Arab world over controversial US film

Anti-American outrage over a video allegedly insulting Islam's founder has gripped the Arab with violence reported in at least half a dozen places across the Middle East today.

The snowballing protests threatened to even spread to Afghanistan, two days after assailants in Libya killed four American diplomatic personnel, including the ambassador, and caused a foreign policy clash in the US.

Yemen was the worst hit with violence claiming at least five Yemenis as hundreds of protesters stormed the American Embassy. The protesters were repulsed by Yemeni security forces. The entire embassy staff had been safely evacuated well ahead of the development. Yemeni leaders apologised to President Obama for the violence.

However, a number of demonstrators torched cars and plundered office equipment, including computers. They also burned an American flag and hoisted their own. According to witnesses and Yemeni officials, at least 10 American embassy vehicles had been damaged or set on fire.

In Washington, secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton strongly denounced the video, in a bid to quash the misconception in parts of the Arab world that the US government somehow had sponsored or condoned it.

''To us, to me personally, this video is disgusting and reprehensible,'' Clinton said. At a briefing with Morocco's foreign minister at the state department, Clinton said that it appeared to have a deeply cynical purpose: to denigrate a great religion and to provoke rage.