The leader of Lebanon-based Shia Muslim militant group, Hezbollah, has called for fresh protests over the anti-Islam film responsible for stirring violent unrest.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said the world needed to know Muslims “would not be silent in the face of this insult” and called for a week of further protests against the US.

A string of attacks on US consulates, embassies and business interests have already taken place across the Middle East and north Africa. British, Swiss, German and Dutch properties have also been targeted.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has also called for fresh attacks against Western embassies, calling the riots so far “a great event”, and urging protesters to push for the expulsion of “the embassies of America from the lands of the Muslims”.

Protesters in Kabul, Afghanistan attacked police cars, fired guns and shouted anti US slogans. In Pakistan, clashes between protesters and police occurred when protesters attempted to break through a barricade to the US consulate, resulting in at least one death. Demonstrations also took place in European cities.

There have been protests over the film in Lebanon too, most in the northern city of Tripoli.

The insulting film at the centre of the row, entitled Innocence of Muslims, depicts the Prophet Muhammad as depraved and stupid.

Sheikh Nasrallah called the video an “unprecedented” insult to Islam, adding that it was worse than Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses. He applauded many protests so far for their focus on the US and Israel.

Tony Blair, who now serves as a Middle East envoy said the film was “wrong and offensive but also laughable as a piece of filmmaking – what is dangerous and wrong is the reaction to it”.