KHARTOUM, Sept 14: Anti-US protests by crowds whipped into fury by an anti-Islam film erupted across the Muslim world, as violence exploded in Sudan, Lebanon, Tunisia and Yemen on Friday, leaving five dead and dozens injured.

The protests broke out when Muslims emerged from mosques following the noon prayers to voice their anger at the film made in the United States.

President Barack Obama vowed on Friday to `stand fast’ against anti-US violence in the Arab world, as he witnessed the return to US soil of the remains of four Americans killed in Libya.

“Their sacrifice will never be forgotten, we will bring to justice those who took them from us. We will stand fast against the violence on our diplomatic missions,” Mr Obama said at Andrews Air Force base outside Washington.

In Khartoum, guards on the roof of the US embassy fired warning shots as a security perimeter was breached by dozens of flag-waving protesters, part of a crowd of thousands who had earlier stormed the British embassy and set fire to the German mission, a witness said.

A police vehicle near the US embassy was also torched as demonstrators broke through an outer security cordon after one protester was hit by a police vehicle and killed, a medic and the witness said.

The body of another protester was later found outside the embassy compound, but the circumstances of his death were not immediately clear.

Police had earlier fired volleys of teargas in a bid to prevent the 10,000-strong crowd marching on the US embassy after they had swarmed over the German mission, tearing down the flag to replace it with a black one before torching the building.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso condemned the embassy attacks as against “the rules of the civilised world”. “Nothing justifies these kinds of attacks.”

In Tunis, police firing live rounds and teargas drove angry protesters from the US embassy, some of whom had stormed the compound, with clashes there killing at least two people..

The demonstrators had managed to clamber over a wall after setting several vehicles alight. Protesters also ransacked and torched an American school in Tunis, the TAP news agency reported.

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki in a television address called the attack an `unacceptable’ act against `a friendly country’.

Violence also erupted in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, where a crowd of 300 people attacked and set fire to a restaurant, sparking clashes with police in which one person died and 25 were injured, security sources said.

The attack came as Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Lebanon for a three-day visit, calling for Christian-Muslim coexistence and attacking religious extremism.

And with tempers boiling across the Muslim world over the movie since the US ambassador to Libya was killed in an attack on the American consulate in Benghazi on Tuesday, the Pentagon said it had sent a team of Marines to Yemen.

The announcement came as tension spiralled again in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, with security forces firing warning shots and water cannon to disperse crowds trying to reach the American embassy.

In Cairo, clashes outside the US embassy subsided when police erected a wall of concrete blocks on a road leading to the American compound. But protesters then moved to a different road and hurled stones at police who responded with teargas.

Earlier the Muslim Brotherhood withdrew calls for nationwide protests in response to the film `Innocence of Muslims’, saying they would instead take part in a `symbolic’ demonstration.

In Iran, thousands of people yelling `Death to America’ and `Death to Israel’ rallied in central Tehran.

Protests have spread to Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, India, Iraq, Israel and the Gaza Strip, Mauritania, Morocco, Syria, Kuwait, Nigeria and Kenya.

In India, police said they had arrested 86 people after they attacked the US consulate in the city of Chennai.

In Kabul, hundreds of Afghan protesters took to the streets, setting fire to an effigy of Mr Obama and demanding the death of the film-maker.

The head of Libya’s national assembly, Mohammed Al Megaryef, blamed Al Qaeda for the attack in Benghazi and said he regretted the loss of “a friend of Libyans who rendered laudable services to Libya”.

The United Nations on Friday evacuated its expatriate staff in Benghazi to Tripoli `temporarily’ for security reasons, a spokeswoman for the UN Support Mission in Libya said.

Washington sought to keep a lid on the demonstrations by spelling out that the controversial film was made privately by a small group of individuals with no official backing.—AFP