The mob sacked the U.S. Consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday, killing Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three U.S. government employees. The attack came hours after a demonstration in Cairo, where protesters scaled the wall of the U.S. Embassy and pulled down the American flag in anger over the video, produced in the United States, which protesters said mocked the prophet Muhammad.
"This is a criminal act that will not go unpunished. This is part of a series of cowardice acts by supporters of the former regime who want to undermine Libya's revolution," Prime Minister Abdurrahim Keib told reporters.
Keib said the details of the attack were under investigation.
Libyan President Mohamed Magariaf apologized for the deaths and vowed that justice would be served.
"We refuse that our nation's lands be used for cowardice and revengeful acts. It is not a victory for God's Sharia or his prophet for such disgusting acts to take place," Magariaf said. "We apologize to the United States, the people of America, and the entire world. We and the American government are standing on the same side, we stand on the same side against outlaws."
The killing of Stevens and the other U.S. personnel is a severe test to the relationship between Libya and the West after an air campaign by the United States and its NATO allies helped Libya's current leadership topple Moammar Kadafi's regime in 2011. Even as NATO aircraft targeted Kadafi's military forces, concerns were raised regarding the radical Muslim element hidden in Libyans' revolt against the longtime strongman.
Early Wednesday morning, President Obama released a statement: "I strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi, which took the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Right now, the American people have the families of those we lost in our thoughts and prayers. They exemplified America's commitment to freedom, justice, and partnership with nations and people around the globe, and stand in stark contrast to those who callously took their lives."
Obama concluded his statement saying, "The brave Americans we lost represent the extraordinary service and sacrifices that our civilians make every day around the globe. As we stand united with their families, let us now redouble our own efforts to carry their work forward."
A White House official said national security advisor Tom Donilon first briefed the president on the violence in Benghazi on Tuesday afternoon, at the top of a weekly meeting with the Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey.
The president was updated throughout the evening, and notified late Tuesday that Stevens was unaccounted for. Obama learned Wednesday that Stevens was confirmed dead Wednesday morning, the official said.
In a statement Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said one of the other dead was Sean Smith, an information management officer with the State Department and a 10-year veteran of the foreign service who had served in Iraq, South Africa, Canada and the Netherlands. He was a husband and father of two, the statement said.
U.S. officials have yet to identify the other victims.
Wanis al-Sharif, Libya's deputy minister of the interior, told the Associated Press that Stevens and three others had died as the crowd torched the consulate in Benghazi hours after demonstrators scaled the wall of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo in protest over the anti-Muslim video. A Twitter message from Libya's deputy prime minister, Mustafa Abu Shagur, condemned the death of Stevens and the other American personnel killed in the attack.
The protesters in Benghazi set fire to the consulate and fired guns into the air in protest over the film, according to Reuters reporters on the scene. Looters reportedly grabbed desks, chairs and even washing machines from the empty compound.
Egyptian protesters had earlier gathered at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo in protest over a video that they said mocked the prophet Muhammad, claiming it had been made by Egyptian Coptic immigrants in the U.S.
The Cairo protesters pulled down the U.S. flag, and in its place raised a black flag that read: "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet" before Egyptian security forces sought to tame the crowd.
As night fell, protesters continued to gather outside the embassy in one of the biggest demonstrations in the city since the fall of Hosni Mubarak's government early last year. Security forces surrounded the embassy compound to prevent protesters from again storming it, though some demonstrators remained on the wall, waving black flags.
As many as 2,000 demonstrators rallied outside the embassy in a gathering called by the conservative Islamic Salafist movement.
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SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
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