https://twitter.com/AlArabiya_Eng/statuses/245806348149862400
Al Arabiya Englishand perhaps not smoke inhalation as reported by al jazeera...........
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/us-ambassador-libya-three-others-killed
US Ambassador To Libya, Three Others, Killed
Yesterday it was the US embassy in Egypt which fell victim to a riot of angry protestors who stormed the building and replaced the US flag with a black one. Today, the violence shifts to Libya where the US ambassador and three staffers was just killed after an attack over a US-produced filmed deemed insulting to Muslims. Perhaps it is time for the US to replace one "pro-democracy" regime with another. From Reuters: "The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other embassy staff were killed in a rocket attack on their car, a Libyan official said, as they were rushed from a consular building stormed by militants denouncing a U.S.-made film insulting the Prophet Mohammad." Number of US ambasadors to Libya killed under Gadaffi's regime? Zero.
More:
*****The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other embassy staff were killed in a rocket attack on their car, a Libyan official said, as they were rushed from a consular building stormed by militants denouncing a U.S.-made film insulting the Prophet Mohammad.Gunmen had attacked and burned the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, a centre of last year's uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, late on Tuesday evening, killing one U.S. consular official. The building was evacuated.The Libyan official said the 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.There was no immediate comment from the State Department in Washington. U.S. ambassadors in such volatile countries are accompanied by tight security, usually travelling in well-protected convoys. Security officials will be considering whether the two attacks were coordinated.Libyan deputy prime minister Mustafa Abu Shagour condemned the killing of the U.S. diplomats as a cowardly act.The consular official had died after clashes between Libyan security forces and Islamist militants around the consulate building. Looters raided the empty compound and some onlookers took pictures after calm returned.In neighbouring 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.
the al jazeera version of events.....
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/09/20129112108737726.html
( updated... )
| US envoy dies in Benghazi consulate attack |
Ambassador and three staffers killed during attack in east Libya city over US-produced film deemed insulting by Muslims.
Last Modified: 12 Sep 2012 09:23
|
| The US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, has died from smoke inhalation in an attack on the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, security sources have said. An armed mob attacked and set fire to the building in a protest against an amateur film deemed offensive to Islam's Prophet Muhammad, after similar protests in Egypt's capital.
"One American staff member has died and a number have been injured in the clashes," Abdel-Monem Al-Hurr, spokesman for Libya's Supreme Security Committee, said on Wednesday, adding that rocket-propelled grenades were fired at the building from a nearby farm.
"There are fierce clashes between the Libyan army and an armed militia outside the US consulate," he said. He also said roads had been closed off and security forces were surrounding the building. Just hours earlier on Tuesday, thousands of Egyptian demonstrators apparently angry over the same film - a video produced by expatriate members of Egypt's Coptic community resident in the US - tore down the Stars and Stripes at the US embassy in Cairo and replaced it with a black Islamic flag. The two incidents came on the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US. "Some have sought to justify this vicious behaviour as a response to inflammatory material posted on the internet," said a statement by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, who also confirmed the death of the consulate employee. "The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others," she said. Suleiman El-Dressi, Al Jazeera's producer in Benghazi, said, "A group of people calling themselves the 'Islamic law supporters' heard the news that there will be an American movie insulting the Prophet." "Once they heard this, they came out of their military garrison and went into the streets calling upon people to gather and go ahead to attack the American consulate in Benghazi. Cairo incident In the day's first such incident, nearly 3,000 demonstrators, most of them Islamist supporters of the Salafist movement or football fans, gathered at the US embassy in Cairo in protest against the amateur film. A dozen men scaled the embassy walls and one of them tore down the US flag, replacing it with a black one inscribed with the Muslim profession of faith: "There is no God but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God." Demonstrators also scrawled the first part of the statement "There is no God but God" on the walls of the embassy compound. Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros, reporting from outside the US embassy in Cairo, said that the protesters want the film – portions of which can be found online - "out of circulation".
*****
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2201780/American-killed-radical-Islamists-storm-U-S-Embassies-Cairo-Libya.html
Revolt: An armed man waves his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames after being set on fire inside the U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi, Libya
In flames: The U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, is seen on fire during a protest by an armed group protesting a film being produced in the United States
Destruction: Plumes of smoke and flames can be seen rising out of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi after the building was raided by gunmen who set it on fire
Protest: An American worker was shot to death and another was injured as the armed demonstrators swarmed the embassy in Benghazi
The mob climbed the walls of the compound in Cairo and ripped down the U.S. flag
Protesters destroy an American flag pulled down from the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt
Egyptian riot police stand guard as protesters climb down from the wall of the embassy
and....
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/09/20129112108737726.html
| US consulate employee killed in Libya attack | |
Angry demonstrations take place in Benghazi and in Egypt's capital at amateur film deemed offensive to Prophet Muhammad.
Last Modified: 12 Sep 2012 00:15
| |
An American staff member of the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi has died following fierce clashes at the compound, Libyan security sources said.
An armed mob attacked and set fire to the building in what they say was a protest against an amateur film deemed offensive to Islam's Prophet Muhammad, after similar protests in Egypt's capital.
"One American staff member has died and a number have been injured in the clashes," Abdel-Monem Al-Hurr, spokesman for Libya's Supreme Security Committee, said on Wednesday, adding that rocket-propelled grenades were fired at the building from a nearby farm.
"There are fierce clashes between the Libyan army and an armed militia outside the US consulate," he said. He also said roads had been closed off and security forces were surrounding the building.
Just hours earlier on Tuesday, thousands of Egyptian demonstrators apparently angry over the same film - a video produced by expatriate members of Egypt's Coptic community resident in the US - tore down the Stars and Stripes at the US embassy in Cairo and replaced it with a black Islamic flag.
The two incidents came on the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US.
Wanis al-Shari, Libya's deputy interior minister, said the crowd in Benghazi attacked the building and that the information was confirmed by the US embassy in the capital, Tripoli, on Tuesday.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, in a statement, condemned the attack in Benghazi.
"We can confirm that our office in Benghazi, Libya, has been attacked by a group of militants ... We condemn in strongest terms this attack on our diplomatic mission."
Al Jazeera's John Terrett, reporting from Washington, said the State Department had not yet confirmed the death of the consulate employee in Benghazi, but the State Department said it was still securing the consulate area with the help of Libyan security forces.
Cairo incident
In the day's first such incident, nearly 3,000 demonstrators, most of them Islamist supporters of the Salafist movement or football fans, gathered at the US embassy in Cairo in protest against the amateur film.
A dozen men scaled the embassy walls and one of them tore down the US flag, replacing it with a black one inscribed with the Muslim profession of faith: "There is no God but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God."
Demonstrators also scrawled the first part of the statement - "There is no God but God" - on the walls of the embassy compound.
Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros, reporting from outside the US embassy in Cairo, said that the protesters want the film – portions of which can be found online - "out of circulation".
"Most of the people I've spoken to here, a lot of them from the ultra-conservative Salafi movement, say that they've seen the trailer to this film and that they're here outside the American embassy to stay until the film is pulled," she said.
"There's also a situation with the police, where there are thousands of riot police guarding the American embassy because there of the breach earlier on, when a lot of people stormed into the inner wall of the embassy and put a black flag up."
Egyptian police intervened without resorting to force and persuaded the trespassers to come down.
The crowd then largely dispersed, leaving just a few hundred protesters outside the US mission.
Embassy reaction
When asked whether the flag the protesters hoisted an al-Qaeda flag - on the anniversary of the killing of nearly 3,000 people in Washington, New York and Pennsylvania - a US state department official said she thought not.
"We had some people breach the wall, take the flag down and replace it. What I heard was that it was replaced with a plain black flag. But I may be not be correct in that," she said.
"In Cairo, we can confirm that Egyptian police have now removed the demonstrators who had entered our embassy grounds earlier today," said a senior State Department official, who added that he could not confirm any connection with the incident in Libya.
Egyptian activist Wael Ghoneim wrote on his Facebook page that "attacking the US embassy on September 11 and raising flags linked to al-Qaeda will not be understood by the American public as a protest over the film about the prophet.
"Instead, it will be received as a celebration of the crime that took place on September 11," he said.
Americans on Tuesday marked the 11th anniversary of the September 11, attacks in which nearly thousands were killed when hijacked airliners crashed into the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center, and another was brought down in Pennsylvania.
and.......
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/0/52567/Egypt/Egypt-army-intervenes-to-pacify-Salafist-protest-a.aspx
Egypt army intervenes to pacify Salafist protest at US embassy
Military is deployed in Cairo's Garden City district after thousands of Salafist activists converge on US embassy to protest film said to denigrate Islam's prophet
Ahram Online, Tuesday 11 Sep 2012
(Photo: Mai Shaheen)
Roughly 2000 Salafist activists answered a call on Tuesday by Wesam Abdel-Wareth, a Salafist leader and president of Egypt's Hekma television channel, to protest 'Muhammad's Trial' – a US-made film which, critics say, insults Islam's Prophet Mohammed – at 5pm in front of the US embassy in Cairo.
The protest began to deviate from its peaceful nature when some demonstrators began setting off fireworks, the sound of which resembled gunfire. Other demonstrators at the scene chanted "Peaceful, Peaceful," urging their fellow protesters to restrain themselves.
Some protesters managed to scale the embassy walls, remove the American flag and replace it with a black flag on which was written: "There's no God but God and Muhammad is the prophet of God."
At one point, the Egyptian Army intervened, surrounding the embassy grounds in an effort to control the situation.
The controversial film is reportedly being produced by US-based Coptic-Christian Egyptians, including Esmat Zaklama and Morees Sadek, with the support of the Terry Jones Church in the United States.
Various local churches in Egypt have condemned the film in recent days, asserting that those responsible for it were merely carrying out their own agendas and did not represent Egypt's Christian community.
and......
http://www.libyaherald.com/?p=14109
US diplomatic office in Benghazi attacked
By Maha Ellawati.
Benghazi, 11 September:
The American representative office in Benghazi was stormed today during protests over the reported airing on US TV of a video attacking the Prophet Mohammed. The US flag was reportedly ripped down, burned and replaced with the black flag of Islam and there was an attempt to set the building on fire. Smoke was seen coming from the building in Venezia Street. Reuters reports that its correspondent saw three injured members of the security forces being taken away in ambulances. A US security official was also reported injured.
There were similar violent protests at the US embassy in Cairo, where the US flag was also ripped down and burned.
There are conflicting accounts of what happened in Benghazi. One of the demonstrators told the Libya Herald that the protest was entirely peaceful until the police and local security forces tried to intervene and end the demonstration by firing into the air. That angered the protestors who then turned on the police, the demonstrator said. One of them, he said, then went to his car, got out a rocket propelled grenade launcher and fired at a police vehicle. However, he missed and the RPG hit the consulate instead.
Other witnesses give a very different account. One, a Benghazi bank official who did not want to be named, told the Libya Herald that the protestors were all Salafists who had turned up to the consulate intent on causing maximum damage, bringing guns and RPGs with them. He claimed there were members of the Islamist militia Ansar Al-Sharia among them. He said that fierce clashes between them and security forces lasted for five hours. He confirmed that the protestors had got into the building.
According to him, the police guarding the office had allowed the protestors into the consulate. They then forced those inside to leave before trying to set the building on fire.
However, according to the deputy interior minister responsible for eastern Libya, Wanis Al-Sharif, no one was in the consulate when it was stormed.
US ambassador Chris Stevens has said that all members of staff were save and well. He accused those involved in the attack of wanting to destroy relations between the Libyan and American people and said it was time for the Libyan authorities to action against people with guns.
Confirmation of clashes was given by the local spokesman for the Supreme Security Committee, Abdel-Monen Al-Hurr. He said that there were “fierce clashes between the Libyan army and an armed militia outside the US consulate”. He said that US security guards inside the building “fired at the militia as they were trying to enter and attack it.”
It is being widely reported in Benghazi that one person died in the disturbance. “One American staff member has died and a number have been injured in the clashes,” claimed Hurr. However, both demonstrators and witnesses say that this is not true.
Reuters have reported that following the attack looters took equipment from the building, including air-conditioners, desks, chairs and even washing machines.
At the beginning of June a bomb exploded outside the office in an attack that was seen as retaliation for the killing of Al-Qaeda’s Libyan deputy commander Abu Yahya al-Libi by a US drone strike. By coincidence, Al-Qaeda acknowledged the killed today.
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