Demonstrators attacked the US embassies in Yemen and Egypt on Thursday in protest at a film they consider blasphemous to Islam and American warships headed to Libya after the death of the US ambassador there in related violence earlier in the week.

Yemeni police reportedly shot dead a protester and wounded five others when they opened fire on a crowd attempting to storm the US embassy in Sanaa to protest a film mocking Islam, a security official said.

Hundreds of Yemeni demonstrators broke through the main gate of the heavily fortified compound in eastern Sanaa, shouting “We sacrifice ourselves for you, Messenger of God”. In Egypt, protesters hurled stones at a police cordon around the US embassy in central Cairo after climbing into the embassy and tearing down the American flag.

The state news agency said 13 people were injured in violence which erupted on Wednesday night after protests on Tuesday.

A day earlier, Islamist gunmen staged a military-style assault on the US consulate and a safe house refuge in Benghazi, eastern Libya. US ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans died in the attack.

US President Barack Obama vowed to “bring to justice” the Islamist gunmen responsible and the US military moved two navy destroyers towards the Libyan coast, in what a US official said was a move to give the administration flexibility for any future action against Libyan targets.

The military also dispatched a Marine Corps anti-terrorist security team to boost security in Libya. Obama said he had ordered an increase in security at US diplomatic posts around the globe.

A film, ‘Innocence of Muslims’ root cause: The attackers were part of a mob blaming America for a film they said insulted the Prophet Muhammad. Clips of the “Innocence of Muslims”, had been circulating on the Internet for weeks before the protests erupted.

They show an amateurish production portraying the Prophet Muhammad as a womanizer, a homosexual and a child abuser. The US embassy in Kabul appealed to Afghan leaders for help in “maintaining calm” and Afghanistan shut down the YouTube site so Afghans would not be able to see the film.

PTI Adds: India is likely to ban on Internet a controversial film deemed offensive to Islam that has sparked anti-US protests. The Home Ministry has forwarded a request of the Jammu and Kashmir government to block all webpages where the film is available to Director General of Computer Emergency Response Team India for urgent action.

“The DG CERT-In is looking into the matter and in all probability the webpages will be blocked soon,” a Home Ministry official said Thursday.  “We have requested the nodal agency in the Information Technology Ministry to block the video,” J&K home secretary B R Sharma told PTI in Srinagar.