US ambassador Chris Stevens killed in Libya

The blaze at the US consulate in Benghazi after it was attacked by an armed group on September 11, 2012. Photograph: Reuters/Esam Al-Fetori Photograph: ESAM OMRAN AL-FETORI/REUTERS

 

  The US ambassador to Libya, a state department technician and two other Americans were killed in an attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi – and in a possible second attack at or near a US safe house.
• US officials suspect the attack in Libya was planned, in contrast to an attack the same day on the US embassy in Cairo. Both attacks occurred on Sept. 11. The Libyan ambassador, Christopher Stevens, may have been killed as he went to the scene of the attack on the compound, although the circumstances of his death are still unclear. Libyan officials report several Libyan guards were killed in the attack.
• President Obama and Secretary Clinton condemned the attacks in Egypt and Libya and vowed to bring the Libyan attackers to justice. Obama said the United States was founded on the principle of religious tolerance and no supposed provocation justified the violence.
• Diplomats and colleagues paid tribute to Ambassador Stevens as a committed diplomat who loved North Africa and was inspired by what he saw as an efflorescence in Libya.
• GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney came under fire for using a press conference Wednesday morning to double down on an attack on the Obama administration's handling of the crisis overseas. Romney said the US must defend its constitutional values.
• The identity of the filmmaker behind "Innocence of Muslims," the purported trigger for the Egypt and Libya attacks, was thrown into doubt, as the name "Sam Bacile" was revealed to be a pseudonym for parties presently unknown.

US suspects attack in Benghazi was planned, not spontaneous

The United States believes the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya, may have been planned, and not a spontaneous reaction to a film disseminated on the Internet, the New York Times reports:

The protesters in Cairo appeared to be a genuinely spontaneous unarmed mob angered by an anti-Islam video produced in the United States. By contrast, it appeared the attackers in Benghazi were armed with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Intelligence reports are inconclusive at this point, officials said, but indications suggest the possibility that an organized group had either been waiting for an opportunity to exploit like the protests over the video or perhaps even generated the protests as a cover for their attack.

source: theguardian