Updated at 3:20 p.m. ET: President Barack Obama on Saturday rejected any denigration of Islam, but insisted there was no excuse for attacks on U.S. embassies as angry protests over an obscure, anti-Muslim film spread to Australia.

"I have made it clear that the United States has a profound respect for people of all faiths," Obama said in his weekly radio address.

"Yet there is never any justification for violence .... There is no excuse for attacks on our embassies and consulates,” he added.

Anti-American protests have swept the Muslim world in response to the film, which insults the Prophet Muhammad.

Libya president: 'Foreigners' involved in consulate attack

The death toll as a result of violence during protests in the Middle East and North Africa Friday rose from seven to nine with Tunisian officials saying four people -- rather than two as stated earlier -- died there. Three were killed by gunfire and the other died after being hit by two police cars, a senior hospital official told Reuters.

An attack on the U.S. Consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others this week.

A day after Obama led a somber ceremony marking the return of the bodies of the Americans killed in Libya, Obama acknowledged that a surge of anti-American violence in the Middle East is disturbing.

Related: Suspected anti-Islam filmmaker questioned by Feds

The Pentagon had said it was sending Marines to beef up security at the U.S. Embassy in Sudan, following similar reinforcements to Libya and Yemen. But on Saturday, Sudan rejected the U.S. request to send a platoon the embassy in Khartoum.

"Sudan is able to protect the diplomatic missions in Khartoum and the state is committed to protecting its guests in the diplomatic corps," Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti told SUNA, the state news agency.

Protesters on Friday entered the embassy grounds.

The Libyan attack and theU.S.-directed outrage have raised questions about Obama's handling of the so-called Arab Spring, a series of revolutions that have unseated entrenched authoritarian governments.

Related: At least seven reported killed in protests

The turbulence in the Middle East has had ripples in a tight U.S. presidential election, with Obama's Republican challenger Mitt Romney saying Obama has weakened U.S. authority around the world.

However, Obama repeated a vow to bring the attackers of the U.S. Consulate in Libya to justice. "We will not waver in their pursuit," he said.

The president also said the turmoil should not deter U.S. efforts to support democracy in the region or elsewhere.

"Let us never forget that for every angry mob, there are millions who yearn for the freedom, and dignity, and hope that our flag represents," he said.

The protests over the anti-Islam film, "Innocence of Muslims," continued Saturday, spreading to Australia where authorities seemed taken by surprise as more than 400 demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Consulate in Sydney.

Some of the chanting protesters carried placards reading "Behead all those who insult the Prophet."

Several streets, usually thronging with weekend shoppers, were blocked off by police as the protest grew. Police, many wearing anti-riot equipment and some on horseback, used dogs and chemical sprays as they tried to control the protest.

Reuters Television pictures showed one policeman with a head injury being led away by colleagues. Police later said six officers had been injured and eight protesters arrested. A spokesman for paramedics said there were no serious injuries. 

A Muslim leader addressed the protesters in a park, calling for calm.

In Egypt, the interior minister said he would restore calm after a 35-year-old protester was killed and dozens of people were injured in clashes overnight.

The authorities closed the street leading to the U.S. Embassy where the demonstrators had spent four days throwing rocks and petrol bombs at police.

A Reuters reporter saw police push several young men into trucks. Two of the men looked bruised and one was stripped down to his underwear.

Police formed cordons on roads into Tahrir Square near the U.S. mission and plain-clothes officers wielding sticks frisked passers-by. The square, the focus of last year's popular uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak, was strewn with garbage and a torched vehicle was towed away.

Tim Wimborne / Reuters

An injured protester is detained by a policeman in Sydney's Hyde Park, Saturday.

"Our presence here is to clear the square of people who are breaking the law," Interior Minister Ahmed Gamal el-Din said as he inspected the area. "We must preserve the square as a symbol of the revolution. That is the aim of our operation."

He said measures would be taken to ensure "those breaking the law" do not return.

The protesters said they wanted to expel the U.S. ambassador to punish Washington over the low-budget film. It portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a womanizer and religious fake. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called the film "disgusting and reprehensible."

Egypt's state news agency said 27 people were injured on Friday, which suggests more than 250 people have been hurt in the clashes since Tuesday, when protesters climbed the embassy's walls and tore down an American flag.

President Mohamed Morsi, an Islamist and Egypt's first freely elected leader, has to strike a delicate balance, fulfilling a pledge to protect the embassy of a major aid donor while delivering a robust line against the film to satisfy his Islamist backers.

In Sinai, militants attacked an international observer base close to the borders of Israel and Gaza, a witness and a security source said. Two Colombian soldiers were wounded, an official from the observer force said.

Many Muslims regard any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad as blasphemous. The film has provoked outrage across the Middle East and led to the storming of several U.S. missions in the region.

In Libya, authorities said they had made four arrests in the investigation into the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on Tuesday that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

Morsi has condemned the film, rejected violence and promised to protect diplomatic missions. His cabinet said Washington was not to blame for the film but urged the United States to take legal action against those insulting religion.

The United States has a large embassy in Cairo, partly because of a vast aid program that began after Egypt signed a peace deal with Israel in 1979. Washington gives $1.3 billion in aid a year to Egypt's army plus additional funds for government.

In Yemen, al Qaida urged Muslims on Saturday to step up protests and kill U.S. diplomats in Muslim countries and called the film denigrating Muhammad another chapter in the "crusader wars" against Islam.

"Whoever comes across America's ambassadors or emissaries should follow the example of Omar al-Mukhtar's descendants (Libyans), who killed the American ambassador," Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said.

"Let the step of kicking out the embassies be a step towards liberating Muslim countries from the American hegemony," it said in a statement posted on a website.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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LAS VEGAS – President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that while he does not believe Egypt is an ally of the United States, he also doesn't consider the country an enemy.

“I think that we are going to have to see how they respond to this incident,” Obama said in an interview with Telemundo anchor José Diaz-Balart, host of Noticiero Telemundo. He was referring to Tuesday’s protests in Egypt, during which demonstrators, angered by a movie trailer parodying Prophet Muhammad, breached the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

The president continued: "Certainly in this situation, what we're going to expect is that (the Egyptian government is) responsive to our insistence that our embassy is protected, our personnel is protected, and if they take actions that they’re not taking those responsibilities, as all countries do where we have embassies, I think that’s going to be a real big problem.”

Obama’s strong words could mark a dramatic shift in the U.S.’s relationship with Egypt, which has been consistently pro-American since the late president Anwar Sadat. The country has maintained a peace accord with Israel since the 1979 Camp David Accords and since 1982 has received $1.3 billion in military and development aid from the U.S, according to the State Department.

How the recent election of President Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, will – or already has – affected the relationship between the two countries is still unclear. Morsi was Egypt’s first-ever democratically-elected president.

In the Telemundo interview Wednesday night, Obama also discussed the ambush on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, calling the deaths of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Libya "heartbreaking" and repeated his call to bring those responsible to justice.

But when asked by Diaz-Balart whether it was time to "reconsider foreign aid" to Egypt and Libya, Obama said the U.S. “doesn't have an option of withdrawing from the world ... we're the one indispensable nation."

"Libya ... is a government that is very friendly towards us,” Obama continued. “The vast majority of Libyans welcomed the United States' involvement. They understand that it's because of us that they got rid of a dictator who had crushed their spirits for 40 years."

Moammar Gadhafi, who had ruled the country since 1969, was overthrown in August 2011 during the Libyan Civil War triggered by the Arab Spring revolutions.

Earlier Wednesday, Libyan leader Mohammed Magarief took to the airwaves to condemn the killings and to apologize to the U.S.

Slideshow: U.S. posts attacked in Libya and Egypt

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The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed after protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad stormed the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

Launch slideshow

President Obama expressed confidence that the Libyan government would help the U.S. in finding those who were responsible for yesterday's violence: "Our hope is to be able to capture them ... but we're going to have to obviously cooperate with the Libyan government. And you know, I have confidence that we will stay on this relentlessly, because Chris Stevens, he's somebody who actually advised me and Secretary Clinton during the original Libyan uprising. He was somebody who Libyans recognized as being on the side of the people. And we're going get help. We're going to get cooperation on this."

Responding to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s statements that Obama’s initial response was disgraceful, Obama said: “As president, my obligation is to focus on security for our people, making sure that we gather all the facts, making sure that we're advancing American interests. And not having ideological arguments on a day when we are mourning the loss of outstanding folks who have served our country very well.”

Updated at 6:30 p.m ET: U.S. Muslims are seeing a spike in hate calls and are concerned about possible retaliatory attacks on domestic mosques following the fatal attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya and protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

“We’re starting to get hate calls and we’d already seen a wave of anti-Muslim incidents,” Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on Arab-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C., told NBC News on Wednesday.

“Our first thought is condemning the attacks. Obviously this is something we’re concerned about,” he said. Muslims are feeling insecure, he added.

Follow live developments from Libya on BreakingNews.com

The Muslim civil rights group later Wednesday held a news conference to condemn the attacks in Libya and Egypt.

The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three embassy staffers were killed in the assault on the Benghazi consulate, which was stormed by Islamist gunmen. Another assault was mounted on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

On Tuesday, CAIR issued a statement urging Muslims to ignore the distribution of what it called the “trashy” anti-Islam film blamed by some for the attacks.

US won't rule out Islamist militant link to attack on US consulate in Libya

Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR, said:

"We urge that this ignorant attempt to provoke the religious feelings of Muslims in the Arabic-speaking world be ignored and that its extremist producers not be given the cheap publicity they so desperately seek. Those who created this trashy film do not represent the people of America or the Christian faith. The only proper response to intentional provocations such as this film is to redouble efforts to promote mutual understanding between faiths and to marginalize extremists of all stripes.”

On Wednesday, Awad said CAIR condemns the attacks in Libya and Cairo: "The actions of the attackers are totally inexcusable and un-Islamic."

An FBI spokesperson told NBC News on Wednesday that the agency has extensive nationwide community outreach through special agents and field offices to local Muslim communities.

Ambassador Stevens was 'courageous and exemplary,' Obama says

“We encourage anyone who thinks they are being threatened or intimated to contact us or law enforcement right away,” the FBI said.

In Rutherford County, Tenn., where the Islamic Center for Murfreesboro went through threats, attacks and a court fight to open last month, the sheriff’s office said on Wednesday it was unaware of any threats or protests following the Libya and Egypt attacks.

“We will respond to protect the Islamic Center,” sheriff’s spokesperson Lisa Marchesoni told NBC News.

Ossama Bahloul, the center's imam, told NBC News, that the center will continue to pay the overwhelming cost of security to protect the center "due to the past history of violence and threats that have been aimed at The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro along with the current concerns."

Bahloul also said the center "condemns in the strongest possible words" the killings in Libya and attack in Cairo.

The New York Police Department told NBC News that there was no new threat, but as a precaution it would ramp up security at numerous religious institutions, including Coptic Christian churches, synagogues and mosques.

Romney slams Obama over attacks on US officials in Libya, Egypt

On Aug. 6, a mosque in Joplin, Mo., was burned to the ground. The same mosque was the subject of an attemped arson a month earlier.

In France, vandals smeared human feces on the doors of a mosque in Limoges sometime between Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning. There was no immediate indication, however, that the desecration was linked to the unrest over the film. The doors were daubed with neo-Nazi graffiti in July, news agencies said.

Hassan Shibly, executive director of the Florida Council on American Islamic Relations in Tampa, Fla., said if an attack on a mosque occurred it would be hard to know who would be retaliating against what.

“When somebody knocks on my door at CAIR, I just hope I don’t hear a gunshot," Shibly told NBC News. "There are a lot of crazies out there promoting hate.”

NBCNewYork.com's Jonathan Dienst and NBC News' Kari Huus and Jeff Black contributed to this article.

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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with newly elected Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi for the first time, arriving in Egypt amid a showdown between the Islamist president and the country’s powerful military leadership that has filled the gap since the ouster of long-time President Hosni Mubarak.

In comments at a news conference after her meeting with Morsi, Clinton said the United States supports the full establishment of democratic rule in Egypt and the return of its military to an exclusively national security role. She was scheduled to meet on Sunday with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi who headed a group of generals who oversaw Egypt's transition period.

"The United States supports the full transition to civilian rule with all that entails,'' Clinton said during a news conference after her meeting with Morsi. She commended the military's stabilizing role during Egypt's transition, Reuters reported.

 "But there is more work ahead. And I think the issues around the parliament, the constitution have to be resolved between and among Egyptians. I will look forward to discussing these issues tomorrow with Field Marshall Tantawi and in working to support the military's return to a purely national security role.'' 

The Egyptian military ruled the country for 16 months until Morsi's inauguration on June 30, but the generals retained far-reaching powers and stripped the presidency of many powers before they stepped down.

Even before that, Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court dissolved the first democratically elected parliament, which was Islamist-dominated, after ruling that a third of its members were elected illegally. Morsi has tried to reinstate the lawmakers, many of them allies from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Prior to their meeting Clinton and Morsi exchanged pleasantries in the presence of the media, the BBC reported. Clinton talked about the rapid pace of change in Egypt.

Morsi said: "We are very very keen to meet you and happy that you are here."

The Associated Press noted that the two did not shake hands when they first met, sparking speculation about whether Morsi’s beliefs prohibited it. But the president shook hands with Clinton and the entire U.S. delegation behind closed doors, according to a U.S. official, the AP reported later.

Clinton's trip is also intended to shore up the U.S.-Egypt relationship. Mubarak was a staunch military and strategic ally in the region. Morsi’s Islamic Brotherhood was outlawed by the Mubarak regime for decades.

EPA

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi meets with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt on Saturday.

Clinton emphasized the need for Egypt to adhere to its 1979 peace treaty with Israel, and offered U.S. support to help Cairo regain control of the increasingly lawless Sinai Peninsula — a major security concern for Israel, Reuters reported. She is slated to fly to Israel from Egypt.

In Egypt, Clinton will highlight a number of initiatives the United States is taking to bolster the Egyptian economy, which has structural problems from the past three decades under the Mubarak regime and suffered a hit to key industries including tourism amid political turmoil.

The Obama administration has promised a billions dollars in support of the new Egyptian government when it was formed.

Clinton was expected to begin talking about the details of that support package and debt relief — providing funds that can go into job-creating programs and training, especially focused on Egypt's young people, a senior U.S. official said.

In addition, Clinton was planning to announce the head of a new U.S. Egypt Enterprise Fund, initially capitalized at $60 million to invest in the country and speak to the Egyptian leadership about the steps they need to take to tap into another $250 million U.S. fund earmarked for small and medium-sized enterprises.

NBC News, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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New York political leaders are voicing outrage at Egypt’s next president after he promised to fight to free a terrorist linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a later plot to blow up New York City landmarks.

President-elect Mohammed Morsi told a crowd in Tahrir Square he wants convicted terrorist Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman released from a United States prison. “I see signs for Omar Abdel Rahman and detainees pictures,” Morsi said.  “It is my duty and I will make all efforts to have them free, including Omar Abdel Rahman.”

Rahman is serving a life sentence for his role in a plot to blow up the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels, the United Nations and other targets in the 1990s.  He has also been linked to the first World Trade Center bombing that killed six and injured more than a thousand.

See the original story on NBCNewYork.com

Astrid Riecken / Getty Images

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

New York politicians blasted Morsi’s comments Friday.

“President Morsi’s offensive statements are an insult to the memories of the victims of the World Trade Center bombing,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said.  “Sheik Rahman is a terrorist who planned to kill innocent Americans, rest assured he will stay right where he belongs -- in jail for the rest of his life.”

Egypt counts on billions of dollars in aid from the United States, and a State Department spokeswoman declined to comment on Morsi’s speech.

But Rep. Peter King, R-NY, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, called Morsi’s speech “evidence that he is an Islamist and a radical who cannot be trusted.” 

"This is a disgraceful way for him to start his presidency," King added.

Egyptian leader vows to free 'Blind Sheik' jailed in US

Stephen Ferry / Getty Images

Workers on Feb. 26, 1993, rebuild the parking garage destroyed when a van containing explosives was detonated by terrorists in beneath the World Trade Center complex, resulting in the death of six and injuries of over 1,000 others.

Tri-state leaders said Morsi’s comments are raising serious questions as to what kind of leader he will be.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., called Morsi’s statement “…not only outrageous, but it is cause for deep concern about Mohammed Morsi’s respect for the rule of law and democracy.  Any attempt to free this convicted terrorist must be met with swift condemnation.”

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said the U.S. will never free the sheik.

“Omar Abdel-Rahman is a terrorist with American blood on his hands and he will serve the rest of his life in detention," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Egyptian consulate in New York declined to comment.  But NBC News Correspondent Aymen Mohyeldin, who was in Cairo for the speech, said Morsi went off script to make the comments and was likely making the statements for domestic consumption – not to anger the United States.

Hai Do / AFP - Getty Images file

Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, seen in 1993

“The Muslim Brotherhood, and Morsi now, are taking the position he be released on humanitarian extradition more so than overturning his conviction,” Moyeldin said. Muslim Brotherhood leaders are saying Morsi does not plan to repeat the comments in his address Saturday and has condemned acts of terror against the West in the past.

Rahman is in ailing health in a North Carolina prison. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment, except to say the "Blind Sheik" remains behind bars.

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The State Department is investigating how a member of a group designated by the U.S. government as a "foreign terrorist organization" received a visa to come to the United States and this week had meetings with high-level U.S. officials.

Hani Nour Eldin, a member of Egypt's parliament — elected after the popular protests that led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, was also a self-proclaimed member of Gama'a al-Islamiya, blamed for a spate of violence in Egypt in the 1990s, according to a report by the Daily Beast.  

Eldin held meetings at both the White House and the State Department as part of a delegation of Egyptian lawmakers, and confirmed in an interview that he was a member of Gama'a — which the United States listed as a terror organization in 1997.

The delegation met with "a number of folks around town" including Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns, and Under Secretary of Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Robert Hormats, according to State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland.

"I'm not going to say what may result," Nuland said when asked about his status in the country. She would only say that the department is reviewing how Eldin was issued a visa.

The delegation's meeting at the State Department focused on transfer to civilian rule, protection of human rights and democracy in Egypt, Nuland said.

The State Department says the members of the delegation were invited by the Wilson Center, a think tank in Washington, D.C. The Wilson Center has not returned a request for a comment.

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Gama'a was once Egypt's largest militant group but by 2010, it was described as a "loosely organized network," according to a 2010 State Department report. The report says the group's primary goal was to replace the Egyptian government with an Islamic State.

Sheik Umar Abd al-Rahman, considered spiritual leader of Gama'a, is serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the government report says.

Eldin, who told the Daily Beast he was not a terrorist but a legitimately elected member of parliament, said he had requested that al-Rahman be transferred to an Egyptian prison, but that U.S. officials had denied the request.

But the group issued a ceasefire in the late 1990s, and in 2003 the group formally renounced violence, and hundreds of its members were then released from jail.

Following Mubarak's overthrow in 2011, Gama'a al-Islamiya established the Building and Development Party, and took part in the parliamentary elections as part of a bloc of Islamist parties.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Updated at 1:03 p.m. ET: CAIRO -- NBC's Charlene Gubash reports the three former hostages, including two American women, were released to military officials and not police because police are mistrusted by the Egyptian Bedouin tribesmen.

The Governor of South Sinai has also invited the Americans for dinner, Gubash reports. Their itinerary includes Sharm, Cairo to visit pyramids and Alexandria.

Updated at 10:37 a.m. ET:  CAIRO -- South Sinai Police Chief Maj. Gen. Mohammed Naguib tells The Associated Press that he has sent a car to pick up the kidnapping Americans after the deal was made following negotiations with Egyptian Bedouin tribesmen.

The two American women and one guide were seized Friday from a minivan that was returning them from the monastery to the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.  Naguib said earlier the kidnappers wanted the release of fellow tribesmen who were arrested but he isn't releasing details about the negotiations.

NBC's Charlene Gubash says the tourists were on a tour with Seed-Faith Foundation, described online as faith-based travel. 

Updated at 10:46 a.m. ET: Two American tourists kidnapped in Egypt on Friday have been released, local police tell NBC News.

Updated at 10 a.m. ET: Egyptian generals are negotiating with Bedouin tribesmen thought to have kidnapped two Americans and their guides near a popular Red Sea resort on Friday, NBC News' Charlene Gubash reports from Cairo.

The kidnappers are demanding the release of of 33 Bedouins detained last week, she says, adding that Egyptian police now know the whereabouts of the hostages.

Updated at 9:10 a.m. ET: The U.S. State Department said it was working to confirm the citizenship of the two tourists who were kidnapped along with their guide in Egypt on Friday.

The U.S. Embassy in Cairo released the following statement to NBC News:

"Egyptian authorities have confirmed to us that two tourists, who they say are American citizens, have been kidnapped in Sinai. We are trying to confirm their citizenship and in the meantime are working closely with the Egyptian authorities to do everything possible to ensure the tourists' safety."

Updated at 7:10 a.m. ET: Two American tourists and their guide have been kidnapped near a popular Red Sea resort in Egypt, South Sinai's chief of police confirmed to NBC News Friday.

Egypt protesters besiege Cairo ministry

The news came just days after Bedouin tribesmen released about two dozen Chinese cement factory workers taken hostage in the country last week.

Egypt has faced deteriorating security and a surge in crime since the popular uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak nearly a year
ago. Protesters accuse the military council that has assumed power and the police force of negligence.

On Friday, the military and police officials told The Associated Press that abductors sped away in a sedan and a pickup truck after taking the Americans, leaving behind three other people who had been in the minivan. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, did not know the nationalities of those left behind.

The group had been traveling between St. Catherine's Monastery to the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Authorities said a search was under way.

Chinese abducted
On Saturday, 29 Chinese workers were captured by rebels in the Sudanese border state of South Kordofan. The 25 workers freed on Wednesday were in good condition, China's Xinhua news agency said, citing an embassy official there, Ma Jianchun.

Analysis: Egyptians share blame in soccer tragedy

Residents of Sinai say they are neglected by the central government in Cairo, and periodically attack police stations and block access to towns, villages and industrial sites to show their discontent.

The isolated desert region has become more lawless since an uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak a year ago and threw the security apparatus into disarray.

Original post: Two American tourists in Egypt have been kidnapped, South Sinai's chief of police confirmed to NBC News on Friday.

Five tourists were on their way from St. Catherine's Monastery to the very popular Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh, the police told NBC News. He added that Bedouin tribesmen took two and an Egyptian guide and let the remaining three go with the car.

The two are most likely being held to exchange for release of prisoners and land the Bedouin tribe want, NBC reported. They may have also been kidnapped in revenge for a recent crackdown by police.

NBC News, msnbc.com staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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CAIRO, Egypt — An American filmmaker and journalist told Friday how she was arrested and accused of throwing Molotov cocktails by the Egyptian security forces as she fled from clouds of tear gas.

Jehane Noujaim, an award-winning filmmaker best-known for her al-Jazeera TV documentary "Control Room," was seized by security forces while documenting clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

She was detained in the city's Tora prison for 36 hours without a phone and her camera was confiscated, Noujaim said in an interview with NBC News.

Noujaim, who is of Egyptian descent, was not physically harmed during her detention — in contrast to fellow American-Egyptian activist Mona Eltahawy, who told msnbc.com on Thursday that riot police beat her, sexually assaulted her and dragged her by her hair.

She was near Tahrir Square on Wednesday evening to record events because she has been making a film over the past 10 months about the country's revolution and the role of activists in the now-famous street.

"With tear gas everywhere, myself and my crew got separated from each other. I was just trying to basically get out of the area because the tear gas is incredibly strong," she said.

• Egypt protesters stage 'last chance' freedom march

"I ran into then one military guy ... my camera got taken, my eyepiece got broken by him, he called me a spy; whereas the rest of the military had been very helpful in getting us out of the situation, this particular military guy was absolutely not," she said.

Noujaim said it was many hours after her arrest before she was told the reason she had been detained.

"My charge was throwing Molotov cocktails and destroying public property," she said. "If I throw a rock I'd hit the back of the head of the protester in front of me ... that claim was so ridiculous, yet I was in prison for 36 hours because of it."

"If that happens to me, imagine what happens to a kid who gets picked up off the street who doesn't have all of these connections," she added.

"We were taken to Tora prison in one of these big blue trucks driven there and back again. Our phones were gone at this point so we weren't able to contact anybody," she said.

Hope for future
Despite her ordeal, Noujaim spoke of her belief that Egypt would soon have "systems of law" in place.

"These changes take time and I don't want to put this gigantic blame on the poor kids in the police or the poor kids in the army," she said.

"My hope is that ... people all around Egypt will soon be able to have systems of law in place, which really do protect their rights because before human rights are dealt with, before these systems of law are in place, it's very difficult to talk about democracy and politics and who one should vote for," she said.

Noujaim said the experience of being involved in the Tahrir Square protests was "indescribable."

"I don't want to say that Tahrir represents the entire country, but it does represent the hopes and the dreams of so many people in the country," she said.

"What does it accomplish, it's people out there saying that things still need to change and it's a beautiful incredible energy when you're there and you're listening to people that are willing to do whatever it takes to change the mentality and to change the systems in the country."

Edited by msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson

Updated at 11 a.m. ET

An Egyptian-American columnist and activist told msnbc.com Thursday that she was sexually assaulted and beaten by police after being arrested in Cairo.

Speaking after her release following hours of questioning, Mona Eltahawy said her right hand and left arm were broken on Wednesday night by riot police who dragged her by the hair and groped her between the legs.

"They acted like animals," she told msnbc.com in a telephone interview. "I was filming the protests with my camera phone on Mohammed Mahmoud Street when they surrounded me and pulled me away."

Eltahawy posted on her Twitter account that her right hand was "so swollen I can't close it."

She posted a picture of her hand and tweeted that she was being taken to hospital.

She alleged at least one officer stuck his hand down her jeans, adding: "I managed to stop him before he touched my genitals. They touched me all over, groped every part of my body and called me names, called me a whore."

The claims by the Egyptian-born activist, who holds dual citizenship, could not immediately be verified.

She told msnbc.com she had been held for several hours being questioned by the Interior Ministry and Military Intelligence officials before being released early on Thursday.

"I think when they realised I had dual citizenship they were aware they had to be more careful," she said. "Eventually they apologized for the police behaviour and sent me home in a taxi."

"They even gave me 50 [Egyptian] pounds for the fare. The journey was only 18 pounds but I gave the driver the whole lot because I just wanted nothing to do with their money," she added.

Earlier she had posted on Twitter: "The dogs of the CSF (Central Security Force) subjected me to the worst sexual assault ever."

The latest news on protests in Egypt

According to her blog, Eltahawy spoke in May at the Oslo Freedom Forum about the power of censorship.

Camera seized
An American filmmaker and journalist, Jehane Nojaim, was also arrested by Egyptian police while documenting clashes in Tahrir Square, she told a colleague, Karim Amer, by phone.

Nojaim is an award-winning filmmaker of Egyptian ancestry who is best-known for her Al-Jazeera TV documentary "Control Room."

Amer said Nojaim was detained and her camera was confiscated. Amer said he was separated from her after they both fled from tear gas being fired by authorities.

The U.S. Department of State tweeted early Thursday that it was aware of the reports that Nojaim and Elthawy had been arrested and said the U.S. Embassy in Cairo was "engaging authorities." 

By Ian Johnston and Alastair Jamieson at msnbc.com, NBC news and the Associated Press