US President Barack Obama has sent a team of 50 marines to Libya after a bloody attack on a US consulate which left American ambassador Christopher Stevens, two marines and a communications officer dead.
The elite team will be sent to guard the compound in Benghazi which was left ravaged by firebombs during the attack. In the aftermath of the riot, looters are understood to have gutted the building.
In a move which ricks inflaming tensions between the Islamic militants and the West, Obama is set to provide ‘all necessary resources’ to safeguard diplomatic personnel worldwide. This, according to Fox News, includes sending marines into Libya.
The move is particularly radical as Obama chose not to put military personnel on the ground in the North Africa country to help rebels topple Muammar Gaddafi during the revolution last year.
FBI agents will also be sent to investigate the deaths, which they have the power to do if an American dies abroad, an official told CNN.
The American ambassador to Libya and three other embassy staff were killed in a rocket attack after an armed mob protesting at a ‘blasphemous’ film about the Prophet Mohammed set fire to the consulate in Benghazi.
Sources told CNN that the attack on the embassy had been planned and attackers used the protest outside as a diversion – but could not say whether they instigated the protest or simply took advantage of it.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said a ‘small, vicious group’ carried out the attack, but it is not yet known who was behind it.
Christopher Stevens, 52, was at the compound evacuating staff when the building was attacked by 20 heavily-armed militants.
During a 20 minute fire fight, Libyan guards positioned inside the consulate managed to hold the attackers off as they sprayed the building with bullets before hurling a bomb inside.
In the carnage, Sean Smith, a foreign service information management officer was shot dead.
Ambassador Stevens and his team made a desperate bid to flee by car to safety. But the vehicle came under heavy arms fire and was hit by a rocket, leaving it disabled and at the mercy of the mob.
Two marines attempted to aid Ambassador Stevens but were shot dead, according to CBS.
Graphic images taken at the scene show civilians making desperate attempts to pull the diplomat to safety. But their efforts were futile.
Al Jazeera TV today reported that Ambassador Stevens died of smoke inhalation, while the doctor who treated him said he died of severe asphyxiation, which caused stomach bleeding. He said Stevens had no other injuries.
The doctor, Ziad Abu Zeid, said Stevens was brought to the Benghazi Medical Center by Libyans on Tuesday night with no other Americans and that initially no one realized he was the ambassador. He tried for 90 minutes to revive him.
Stevens was a career diplomat who spoke Arabic and French and had already served two tours in Libya, including running the office in Benghazi during the revolt against Gaddafi.
Five other US ambassadors have been killed in the line of duty, the last being Adolph Dubs in Afghanistan in 1979.
President Barack Obama today condemned the attack and said he has ordered increased security at diplomatic posts around the world.
‘It’s especially tragic that Chris Stevens died in Benghazi as it’s a city that he helped to save,’ Obama said outside the White House.
With ‘characteristic skill, courage and resolve, he built partnerships with Libyans… and he worked tirelessly to support this young democracy.
‘He was a role model to those who worked with him and to the young diplomats who strive to follow in his footsteps.
These four Americans stood up for freedom and human dignity. We grieve with their families but let us carry on their memory… I have no doubt that their legacy will live on.’
He added: ‘The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms this outrageous and shocking attack. There is no justification to this type of senseless violence. None.’
The deaths will put huge pressure on the Libyan administration which took over after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.
Despite the West taking a key role in his overthrow, the country remains unstable and Islamic militants have moved into the power vacuum.
There are also huge questions about the security surrounding both Ambassador Stevens, who was believed to be in Benghazi for the opening of an American building, and the US diplomatic buildings in such a volatile country.
The violence in Libya – and an earlier assault by 2,000 people on the US embassy in the Egyptian capital Cairo – were sparked by a 14-minute trailer for a film called The Innocence of Muslims posted on YouTube.
In an original English version and another dubbed into Egyptian Arabic, Prophet Mohammed has been denigrated.
It was made by Sam Bacile, a 56-year-old California real estate developer who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew.
He said he had produced, directed and written the two-hour film which had only been shown once to a mostly empty theater in Hollywood earlier this year.
‘Islam is a cancer, period,’ he said in an interview yesterday, speaking after the State Department confirmed the death of an American in Benghazi.
He was apologetic about the killing but blamed lax embassy security and the perpetrators of the violence. ‘I feel the security system (at the embassies) is no good,’ said Bacile. ‘America should do something to change it.’
Bacile claimed he did not know who had dubbed the film into Arabic. He went into hiding after the full scale of the the trouble in North Africa became clear.
Yesterday, Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-born Christian in the U.S. known for his anti-Islam views, told AP from Washington that he was promoting the video on his website and on certain TV stations, which he did not identify.
The film has featured on Egyptian media reports for several days with ultraconservative clerics going on air to denounce it and also to attack Sadek, who they blamed for the film.
Matters came to a head yesterday when hundreds of mainly ultraconservative Islamist protesters in Egypt marched to the US Embassy in downtown Cairo, gathering outside its walls and chanting against the movie and the US.
Most of the embassy staff had left the compound earlier because of warnings of the upcoming demonstration.
The crowd chanted, ‘Islamic, Islamic. The right of our prophet will not die.’
Some shouted, ‘We are all Osama,’ referring to al-Qaida leader bin Laden.
Young men, some in masks, sprayed graffiti on the walls. Some grumbled that Islamist President Mohammed Morsi had not spoken out about the movie.
A group of women in black veils and robes that left only their eyes exposed chanted, ‘Worshippers of the Cross, leave the Prophet Mohammed alone.’
Dozens of protesters then scaled the embassy walls, and several went into the courtyard and took down the American flag from a pole. They brought it back to the crowd outside, which tried to burn it, but failing that tore it apart.
The protesters on the wall then raised on the flagpole a black flag with a Muslim declaration of faith, ‘There is no god but God and Mohammed is his prophet.’ The flag is commonly used by ultraconservatives around the region.
The Cairo embassy is in a diplomatic area in Garden City, where the British and Italian embassies are located, only a few blocks away from Tahrir Square, the center of last year’s uprising that led to the ouster of Mubarak.
The U.S. Embassy is built like a fortress, with a wall several metres high. But security has been scaled back in recent months, with several roadblocks leading to the facility removed after legal court cases by residents.
Trouble quickly spread to Libya where a group identifiying itself as the ‘Islamic Law Supporters’ attacked the consulate on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on American in protest at a film that they deemed blasphemous to the Prophet Mohammed.
A furious mob fired gunshots and then set the building alight as they clashed with Libyans hired to guard the facility. Outnumbered by the crowd, Libyan security forces did little to stop them, al-Sharef said.
Witnesses reported militants firing rocket-propelled grenades from a nearby farmhouse.
The situation rapidly deteriorated as the army tried to cordon off the area around the building and fought running battles with the attackers. But the crowd overwhelmed the facility, looting the contents.
‘I heard nearly 10 explosions and all kinds of weapons. It was a terrifying day,’ said a witness who refused to give his name because he feared retribution.