French, Danish and UK embassies attacked in Iran

Reuters:

Protesters hurled petrol bombs at the French embassy in Tehran and threw stones at the Danish and British missions on Friday, despite calls by a senior cleric to stop attacks over cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.

Reuters witnesses said a crowd of about 70 protesters gathered in front of the French embassy chanting "Death to France" and "Death to America". The crowd threw stones and at least three petrol bombs at the embassy, they said.

Earlier on Friday, a Reuters photographer saw a crowd of about 200 people hurl stones at the Danish embassy, which is surrounded by a high wall. Dozens of police prevented the protesters from trying to get into the compound.

The same crowd then moved to the nearby British diplomatic compound in northern Tehran and threw stones at it, a British embassy official said. READ MORE

The protests did not appear to have caused any major damage to the diplomatic properties.

The cartoons, one of which showed the Prophet Mohammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a burning fuse, have incensed Muslims across the world and led to often violent protests in which at least 11 people have been killed.

Protesters have hurled stones and petrol bombs at the embassies of Denmark, Norway, Austria and Britain in Tehran in recent days, causing damage but no serious injuries.

The United States has accused Iran and Syria of deliberately stoking rage among Muslims over the caricatures. Islam bans any depiction of the Prophet Mohammad.

"I am calling on all religious men not to attack the embassies of the foreigners," senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami told Friday prayer worshippers in Tehran in comments broadcast live on state radio.

"Chanting slogans, staging protests and condemning such measures are holy ... but I feel that they want their embassies to be set on fire so they can say that they are innocent," he said. "Take this excuse away from them."

He called for peaceful protests to continue.

"You should continue showing your holy anger until they become remorseful of their deeds," he said.

Khatami accused Washington of being behind the publication of the cartoons.

"Denmark is nothing and one should say 'death to America' ... America is nurturing such puppets," he said.

Iran said on Monday it had cut all trade ties with Denmark because of the satirical cartoons -- hitting $280 million (160 million pounds) a year of Danish exports.