American officials believe the attack was planned, but Chris Stevens had
been back in the country only a short while and the details of his visit to
Benghazi, where he and his staff died, were meant to be confidential.
The US administration is now facing a
crisis in Libya. Sensitive documents have gone missing from the consulate in
Benghazi and the supposedly secret location of the "safe house" in
the city, where the staff had retreated, came under sustained mortar attack.
Other such refuges across the country are no longer deemed "safe".
Some of the missing papers from the consulate are said to list
names of Libyans who are working with Americans, putting them potentially at
risk from extremist groups, while some of the other documents are said to
relate to oil contracts.
According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department
had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in
Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but
no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and
"lockdown", under which movement is severely restricted.
Mr Stevens had been on a visit to Germany, Austria and Sweden
and had just returned to Libya when the Benghazi trip took place with the US
embassy's security staff deciding that the trip could be undertaken safely.
Eight Americans, some from the military, were wounded in the
attack which claimed the lives of Mr Stevens, Sean Smith, an information
officer, and two US Marines. All staff from Benghazi have now been moved to the
capital, Tripoli, and those whose work is deemed to be non-essential may be
flown out of Libya.
In the meantime a Marine Corps FAST Anti-Terrorism Reaction Team
has already arrived in the country from a base in Spain and other personnel are
believed to be on the way. Additional units have been put on standby to move to
other states where their presence may be needed in the outbreak of
anti-American fury triggered by publicity about a film which demeaned the
Prophet Mohamed.
A mob of several hundred stormed the US embassy in the Yemeni
capital Sanaa yesterday. Other missions which have been put on special alert
include almost all those in the Middle East, as well as in Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Armenia, Burundi and Zambia.
Senior officials are increasingly convinced, however, that the
ferocious nature of the Benghazi attack, in which rocket-propelled grenades
were used, indicated it was not the result of spontaneous anger due to the video,
called Innocence of Muslims. Patrick Kennedy, Under-Secretary at the State
Department, said he was convinced the assault was planned due to its extensive
nature and the proliferation of weapons.
There is growing belief that the attack was in revenge for the
killing in a drone strike in Pakistan of Mohammed Hassan Qaed, an al-Qa'ida
operative who was, as his nom-de-guerre Abu Yahya al-Libi suggests, from Libya,
and timed for the anniversary of the 11 September attacks.
Senator Bill Nelson, a member of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, said: "I am asking my colleagues on the committee to immediately
investigate what role al-Qa'ida or its affiliates may have played in the attack
and to take appropriate action."
According to security sources the consulate had been given a
"health check" in preparation for any violence connected to the 9/11
anniversary. In the event, the perimeter was breached within 15 minutes of an
angry crowd starting to attack it at around 10pm on Tuesday night. There was,
according to witnesses, little defence put up by the 30 or more local guards
meant to protect the staff. Ali Fetori, a 59-year-old accountant who lives near
by, said: "The security people just all ran away and the people in charge
were the young men with guns and bombs."
Wissam Buhmeid, the commander of the Tripoli
government-sanctioned Libya's Shield Brigade, effectively a police force for
Benghazi, maintained that it was anger over the Mohamed video which made the
guards abandon their post. "There were definitely people from the security
forces who let the attack happen because they were themselves offended by the
film; they would absolutely put their loyalty to the Prophet over the
consulate. The deaths are all nothing compared to insulting the Prophet."
Mr Stevens, it is believed, was left in the building by the rest
of the staff after they failed to find him in dense smoke caused by a blaze
which had engulfed the building. He was discovered lying unconscious by local
people and taken to a hospital, the Benghazi Medical Centre, where, according
to a doctor, Ziad Abu Ziad, he died from smoke inhalation.
An eight-strong American rescue team was sent from Tripoli and
taken by troops under Captain Fathi al- Obeidi, of the February 17 Brigade, to
the secret safe house to extract around 40 US staff. The building then came
under fire from heavy weapons. "I don't know how they found the place to
carry out the attack. It was planned, the accuracy with which the mortars hit
us was too good for any ordinary revolutionaries," said Captain Obeidi.
"It began to rain down on us, about six mortars fell directly on the path
to the villa."
Libyan reinforcements eventually arrived, and the attack ended.
News had arrived of Mr Stevens, and his body was picked up from the hospital
and taken back to Tripoli with the other dead and the survivors.
Mr Stevens' mother, Mary Commanday, spoke of her son yesterday.
"He did love what he did, and he did a very good job with it. He could
have done a lot of other things, but this was his passion. I have a hole in my
heart," she said.
Global anger: The protests spread
Yemen
The furore across the Middle East over the controversial film
about the Prophet Mohamed is now threatening to get out of control. In Sana'a,
the Yemeni capital, yesterday around 5,000 demonstrators attacked the US
embassy, leaving at least 15 people injured. Young protesters, shouted:
"We sacrifice ourselves for you, Messenger of God," smashed windows
of the security offices and burned at least five cars, witnesses said.
Egypt
Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi yesterday condemned the
attack in Benghazi that killed the US ambassador. In a speech in Brussels, Mr
Morsi said he had spoken to President Obama and condemned "in the clearest
terms" the Tuesday attacks. Despite this, and possibly playing to a
domestic audience, President Obama said yesterday that "I don't think we
would consider them an ally, but we don't consider them an enemy".
Demonstrators in Cairo attacked the mission on Tuesday evening
and protests have continued since.
Iraq
Militants said the anti-Islamic film "will put all the
American interests Iraq in danger" and called on Muslims everywhere to
"face our joint enemy", as protesters in Baghdad burned American
flags yesterday. The warning from the Iranian-backed group Asaib Ahl al-Haq
came as demonstrators demanded the closure of the US embassy in the capital.
Bangladesh
Islamists warned they may "besiege" the US embassy in
Dhaka after security forces stopped around 1,000 protesters marching to the
building. The Khelafat Andolon group called for bigger protests as
demonstrators threw their fists in the air, burned the flag and chanted anti-US
slogans.
Others
There was a Hamas-organised protest in Gaza City, and as many as
100 Arab Israelis took to the streets in Tel Aviv. In Afghanistan, President
Hamid Karzai postponed a trip to Norway, fearing violence. Officials in
Pakistan said they "expected protests". Protesters in Tunis burnt US
flags.
