PROTESTS HAVE SPREAD to Sudan, Tunisia, Qatar and Gaza over an American film said to be anti-Islam, with seven people reported to have died in total.

Al Jazeera reports that there were three deaths in Sudan, two in Lebanon and two in Yemen following protests against the film.

It said that protests began in Tunis after prayers today, when groups attempted to reach the US embassy and enter it. Police tried to push them back but windows were smashed.

The US embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, was entered by protesters earlier today, and the German and British embassies were also attacked, said the BBC.

There have also been protests in Gaza in the town Rafah, in Qatar, Cairo and Doha. A KFC restaurant was set fire to in northern Lebanon.

‘Sam Bacile’

Yesterday, journalists gathered outside the Los Angeles home of a 55-year-old Coptic Christian, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, in the city’s southern suburbs, after reports he had directed the movie that triggered the protests in the Muslim world.

He is thought to have uploaded a trailer for the movie to YouTube under the pseudonym “Sam Bacile” called “Innocence of the Muslims” that featured an actor playing Mohammed, who is portrayed as a drunken and predatory bisexual.

It was apparently shot in English, but a version of the trailer was dubbed into Egyptian Arabic and caused great offence in the Arab world.

Nakoula is said to be under police protection.

Afghanistan

Hundreds of Afghans — some shouting “Death to America” — burned the US flag and an effigy of President Barack Obama today during a protest against the film outside the eastern city of Jalalabad.

Since it surfaced on the Internet, the film has prompted violent protests at US embassies in the Middle East. The American ambassador and three other US staff members were killed when the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya was attacked.

Mohammad Zhirullah, a protester who spoke to The Associated Press on the phone from the site, said the crowd called on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sever relations with the United States.

When the movie was shown around the world, it broke the heart of every Muslim. We condemn this act and those who are behind it should be put on trial and should be hanged to death. … It cannot be tolerated by the Afghan people.

(AlJazeeraEnglish/Youtube)

- Additional reporting AP and AFP