Protests rock Pakistan over antiIslam video as U.S. broadcasts ads denouncing clip.

ISLAMABAD — On the eve of a public holiday to protest an anti-Islam video made in the United States, thousands of demonstrators battled with police officers for hours on Thursday near the capital’s diplomatic quarter, and the U.S. Embassy broadcast advertisements on local television stations showing U.S. leaders denouncing the video.

The ads, a public relations effort to tamp down anti-American sentiment, featured clips of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticizing the YouTube video, which depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a womanizing buffoon.

The clips, which carried the official seal of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, were broadcast in English and subtitled in Urdu, the national language.

The failure of the police to stop demonstrators from assembling near the embassy and other diplomatic missions left the government scrambling.

The State Department issued a travel warning advising Americans to avoid travel to Pakistan.

Some viewers had a luke- warm response to the American ads.

A security analyst based in Karachi, Pakistan, who did not wish to be named, said, “The messages do not matter because all those instigating or supporting the protests benefit from the publicity of the protest.”

Rao Zahid, 30, a government employee in Islamabad, said: “The video message is a cover-up. Google did not ban the video in America. No case was registered against the producer. If the American government wanted, it could have done a lot.”

In Los Angeles on Thursday, a judge refused to order YouTube — which is owned by Google — to remove the video.

Atleast one person here said he liked the embassy message. “I liked that they expressed their sorrow and they were sorry for the video,” Ghalib Khalil, 17, said.

“Also, they reminded people that Islam is a religion of peace and not of killing and violence.”

In a move seen as an effort to tap into public discontent, and widely described by analysts as politically motivated, the ruling Pakistan People’s Party has declared Friday a public holiday called “Love for Prophet Day.”