White House says Benghazi consulate attack was terrorism
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Washington - The White House said that the September 11 assault on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was a terrorist attack with possible ties to al-Qaeda, while the four Americans slain in the attack were remembered in a ceremony Thursday in Tripoli.
White House spokesman Jay Carney gave the highest-level statement to date that US officials believe the killing of US ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other US staffers was the work of terrorists, and not just the result of a spontaneous demonstration.
"It is, I think, self-evident that what happened in Benghazi was aterrorist attack," Carney told reporters.
Carney cited the testimony given in the US Senate on Wednesday by Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counter-terrorism Centre.
Olsen told the Senate panel that investigators were looking at indications that the attackers "may have had connections to al-Qaedaor al-Qaeda's affiliates, in particular, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb." Until Wednesday, US officials had said it was not clear how much of the attack was provoked by an online anti-Islam video,and to what extent terrorist groups were involved.//DPA
