US promises revenge after envoy’s killing

WASHINGTON / BENGHAZI

AFP Photo

U.S. President Barack Obama yesterday vowed “to bring to justice the killers” of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador in Libya also condemning the “outrageous” attack. “Make no mistake, we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people,” Obama said in the White House Rose Garden. Obama, however, vowed the attack would not break America’s bond with the newly liberated nation. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, 52, was killed when he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as the building came under attack by a mob armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the attack as the work of a “small and savage group” but said U.S.-Libyan ties would not suffer. “I ask myself, how could this happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction?” Clinton said.

Libya apologizes

Libyan leader Mohammed Magarief apologized to the United States yesterday over the attack. “We apologize to the United States, the people, and to the whole world for what happened,” Magarief, president of Libya’s national assembly, told a news conference broadcast live on Al Jazeera television.

NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) Adm. James Stavridis voiced “deep sadness” over Stevens’ “tragic” killing in a tweet. A U.S. Marine anti-terrorism team was being deployed to Libya to bolster security after the deadly attack, a U.S. defense official said yesterday, on condition of anonymity. France also condemned the “unspeakable actions,” and demanded that Libyan authorities act quickly to arrest those responsible. The U.N. and Organization of Islamic Cooperation strongly condemned the attack. The Benghazi attack came just hours after Islamists had stormed the U.S. embassy in Cairo in a similar protest against the American-made film, “Innocence of Muslims” which pokes fun at the Prophet Muhammad.

Brotherhood calls for protests accoss Egypt

Nearly 3,000 demonstrators, most of them hard-line Islamist supporters of the Salafi movement, gathered at the embassy to protest the film. Witnesses said the attackers ripped up a U.S. flag, then looted the consulate before setting the flag on fire and replacing it with a black Islamic flag. Egyptian police persuaded the trespassers to calm down. The crowd then largely dispersed.

Egypt’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood yesterday called for nationwide protests tomorrow against the film. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Secretary-General Mahmud Hussein called “for peaceful protests on Friday outside all the main mosques” in a statement. Also, Egypt’s Coptic activists said they would stage a vigil late yesterday in protest against the film. Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said yesterday the film, which was reportedly produced by an Israeli-American, “has nothing whatsoever to do with Israel.” Still, he said Israel will “have to be vigilant.” Around 100 hardline Salafis Muslims protested outside the U.S. embassy in Tunisia yesterday against the film.
Compiled from AFP, AP and Reuters stories by the Daily News staff.