Three dead as protesters attack US embassy in Tunisia

TUNIS (Reuters) - At least three people were killed and 28 others injured on Friday after police fought hundreds of protesters who ransacked the U.S. embassy in Tunisia in their anger over the film degrading the Prophet Muhammad, state television said.

A Reuters reporter saw police open fire to try to quell the attack, in which protesters forced police riot way past them to the embassy.

The protesters smashed windows, threw petrol bombs and stones at police from inside the embassy, ​​or the embassy and started a fire in the complex. A plume of black smoke rising from the facility.

One of the protesters were seen throwing the computer out of the window, while others walked away with a phone and computer.

A security guard near the Tunisian embassy said it had not managed complex on Friday, and calls to the embassy went unanswered. A Reuters reporter saw two armed U.S. soldiers on the roof.

The protesters, many of whom are Salafi Islam, also burned American School nearby, which was closed at the time, and took the laptop and tablet computers.

The protest began after Friday prayers and followed the invitation on Facebook by Islamic activists who quickly backed by a local faction of the Islamic militant group Ansar al-Sharia.

Libyan officials suspect the Libyan branch of Ansar al-Sharia were behind the attack on Benghazi where the four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, was killed on Tuesday.

Moderate Islamist Ennahda movement, which led the government Tunis, Tunisia has advised against participating in protests against the film, crude low-budget, made in California and followed it online, which describes the Muslim Prophet engaging in vulgar and offensive behavior.

"The government (Tunisia) does not accept acts of aggression against foreign diplomatic missions," said a statement read on state television. Tunisian authorities are said to be "committed to ensuring the safety of foreign diplomatic missions".

Hundreds of protesters holding petrol bombs, stones and sticks were laid upon the security forces to protect the embassy before jumping the wall to attack the complex.

"Obama, Obama, we all Osamas," they chanted, referring to the Al-Qaeda leader killed Osama bin Laden.

The protesters pulled down the U.S. flag flying over the embassy, ​​burned it, and replaced it with a black flag decorated with the Shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith.

Riot police finally evict protesters from the embassy and complex, and a Reuters reporter saw them capture around 60.

The compound was closed by police, soldiers and members of the elite presidential guard, but clashes continued in el-Aouina districts across the highway from the smart Auberge du Lac where the embassy is located.

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