By: Reuters with AP
The United States is dispatching a Marine fleet anti-terrorist security team to boost security in Libya after an attack that killed the U.S. ambassador and three of his staff members, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Photo courtesy: U.S. Department of State
Christopher Stevens
No further details were immediately available.
The deaths came during riots by militants denouncing a film mocking the Prophet Mohammad. Militants also rioted in Egypt.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday the deadly attack should "shock the conscience of people of all faiths around the world." She said the assault was committed by a "small and savage group" of militants, not by the people or government of Libya.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called the attack "outrageous" and "disgusting." He said a statement Tuesday from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo was "akin to apology" and a "severe miscalculation."
Two of the four killed in Libya on Tuesday died in a shooting during an attempt by U.S. forces to evacuate staff from a safe house, Libya's Deputy Interior Minister Wanis Al-Sharif said.
U.S. consular staff were moved to the safe house after an attack on the consul building in the eastern city of Benghazi in which the ambassador was killed, minister Wanis Al-Sharif told a news conference.
A plane with U.S. security units arrived from Tripoli to evacuate other staff, but militants discovered the location of the safe house, he said.
"It was supposed to be a secret place, and we were surprised the armed groups knew about it. There was shooting," he said.
A Libyan official said Ambassador Christopher Stevens was being driven from the consulate building to a safer location when gunmen opened fire.
"The American ambassador and three staff members were killed when gunmen fired rockets at them," the official in Benghazi told Reuters.
Libyan deputy prime minister Mustafa Abu Shagour condemned the killings as a cowardly act.
Looters raided the empty U.S. compound and some onlookers took pictures after calm returned.
In neighboring Egypt, demonstrators had torn down an American flag and burned it during the protest. Some tried to raise a black flag with the words "There is no God but God, and Mohammad is his messenger," a Reuters witness said.
Portrayal of Prophet
U.S. pastor Terry Jones, who had inflamed anger in the Muslim world in 2010 with plans to burn the Koran, said he had promoted "Innocence of Muslims," which U.S. media said was produced by an Israeli-American property developer; but clips of another film called "Mohammad, Prophet of Muslims" had been circulating for weeks before the protest.
That film portrayed Mohammad as a fool, a philanderer and a religious fake. In one clip posted on YouTube Mohammad was shown in a sexual act with a woman.
Jones, a pastor in Florida whose latest stunt fell on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, triggered riots in Afghanistan in 2010 with his threat to burn the Koran.
Many Muslims consider any depiction of the Prophet offensive and any depiction of him can cause outbursts of anger in the Islamic world and among Muslims in Europe.
Libya's interim government has struggled to impose its authority on a myriad of armed groups that have refused to lay down their weapons and often take the law into their own hands.
It was clearly overwhelmed by Tuesday night's attack on the consulate that preceded the assault on the ambassador.
"The Libyan security forces came under heavy fire and we were not prepared for the intensity of the attack," said Abdel-Monem Al-Hurr, spokesman for Libya's Supreme Security Committee.
Stringer |AFP | Getty Images
Burned building inside the US Embassy compound in Benghazi, Libya, following an overnight attack on the building.
In Benghazi, unidentified men had shot at the consulate buildings, while others threw handmade bombs into the compound, setting off small explosions.
Looted
On Wednesday morning, the compound stood empty, with passers-by freely walking in to take a look at the damage.
Walls were charred and a small fire burned inside one of the buildings. A small group of men was trying to extinguish the flames and three security men briefly surveyed the scene.
A Reuters reporter saw chairs, table and food lying alongside empty shells. Some bloodstains could also be seen in front of one of the buildings. Three cars were torched.
The crowd of around 2,000 protesters in Cairo was a mixture of Islamists and teenage soccer fans known for fighting police and who played a part in the revolt that toppled Egypt's leader Hosni Mubarak last year.
The fortress-like U.S. mission is near Tahrir Square, where Egypt's uprising began and the scene of many protests since. Youths danced and chanted football songs. A Reuters reporter said they appeared to climb into the embassy compound almost as an afterthought.
"We sacrificed dozens and hundreds during the uprising for our dignity. The Prophet's dignity is more important to us and we are ready to sacrifice millions," said mosque preacher Mohamed Abu Gabal, who joined the protest.
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