US ambassador killed in attack on consulate in Libya
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Cairo - The US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, died of suffocation during an attack on the consulate in Benghazi, broadcaster Al Arabiya reported Wednesday, citing Interior Ministry sources.
Three other embassy staff were killed in clashes in the easterncity that erupted between near the consulate late Tuesday, the Dubai-based broadcaster reported.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that a State Department official was killed in the attack, but she did not name him.
Al Arabiya said the attackers were from the Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of the Islamic Law) militant group and were protesting a film deemed to be insulting to the Prophet Mohammed. The assailants set the consulate building on fire, according tothe report.
The attack came hours after protesters scaled the walls of the US embassy in Cairo and replaced the flag with a black banner, which is popular with radical Islamists
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that a State Department official was killed in the attack, but she did not name him.
Al Arabiya said the attackers were from the Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of the Islamic Law) militant group and were protesting a film deemed to be insulting to the Prophet Mohammed. The assailants set the consulate building on fire, according tothe report.
The attack came hours after protesters scaled the walls of the US embassy in Cairo and replaced the flag with a black banner, which is popular with radical Islamists
