Kuwaitis stage anti-US demo, wave Qaeda flag

KUWAIT CITY: About 500 demonstrators gathered Thursday near the US embassy in Kuwait waving a black Al-Qaeda flag in protest at a film mocking Islam.

President Barack “Obama, we are all Osama,” they chanted referring to Al-Qaeda’s former leader Osama bin Laden who was killed by US forces last year, an AFP photographer at the site of the demonstration reported.

The protesters gathered around 500 metres (yards) away from the US embassy after police forces, heavily deployed in the area, stopped them from reaching the mission.

The demonstrators were joined by five Islamist lawmakers as they called for expelling the US ambassador in the Gulf country.

“The people want to expel the ambassador,” they chanted, as one of their banners read: “USA... respect us.”

Protests have erupted since Tuesday outside US diplomatic missions in several Arab and Muslim states.

AFP