Death toll in Yemen anti-US protests rises

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Clashes between police and demonstrators protesting against a film mocking Islam near the US embassy in Sanaa on Thursday killed four people, a security official said.

'Four people were killed and 34 others were wounded in the clashes that lasted from morning until late in the evening' in the area around the US embassy in Sanaa, the official said.

Earlier on Thursday, a security official said that Yemeni police shot dead a protester in confrontations outside the embassy, shortly after ejecting crowds that stormed the mission's compound.

The White House said that it was doing everything it could to protect its diplomats in Yemen, after a mob breached the embassy wall as fury spread over a US-produced film mocking Islam.

"We are doing everything we can to protect safety and security of personnel," White House spokesman Jay Carney said, adding that President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi had pledged his government would not tolerate violence.

The State Department said all of the US staff at the embassy in Yemen, a hot front on the US campaign against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, were safe.

"We are obviously doing what we can with the Yemenis to restore security there. All of our personnel are safe and accounted for," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told journalists.

Hadi earlier publicly apologized to US President Barack Obama and the American people for the acts of a 'mob' and ordered a probe.