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Washington: The US
ambassador to Libya was killed in a rocket attack by unidentified
armed men who stormed the American consulate in the eastern city
of Benghazi, media reports said Wednesday.
Christopher Stevens was among four people killed in the late
Tuesday protest over a US-produced film that is said to insult the
Prophet Muhammad, BBC reported.
Stevens is the second US envoy anywhere to be killed in an attack
like this. Adolph Dubs, ambassador to Afghanistan, was
assassinated in Kabul in 1979.
Xinhua quoted Al Jazeera TV as saying that Stevens, who was on a
short trip to Benghazi, Libya's second biggest city, died of
suffocation as smoke engulfed the consulate after the mob set it
on fire.
But some reports said he died when a car in which he was trying to
get away came under rocket fire.
According to CNN, unidentified armed men stormed the grounds, and
shot at buildings and threw handmade bombs into the compound.
Security forces returned fire but Libyan officials say they were
overwhelmed.
Three American security staff were also killed, a contractor
working at the mission told CNN.
Stevens served in the post since May 2012. He previously served in
Libya twice, in 2007-09 and during the uprising against Muammar
Gaddafi in 2011.
He worked as international trade lawyer before joining the US
Foreign Service in 1991.
The film that sparked the demonstration is said to have been
produced by Sam Bacile, a 52-year-old US citizen from California
and promoted by an expatriate Egyptian Copt, a native Christian.
Libyan Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur said Stevens was "a
friend of Libya, and we are shocked at the the attacks on the US
consulate in Benghazi".
"I condemn these barbaric acts in the strongest possible terms.
This is an attack on America, Libya and free people everywhere,"
Abushagur wrote on Twitter.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confirmed "a staff member"
died.
"We are heartbroken by this terrible loss. Some have sought to
justify this vicious behaviour as a response to inflammatory
material posted on the internet," Clinton said in a statement.
"The US deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious
beliefs of others. But let me be clear -- There is never any
justification for violent acts of this kind," she said.
In Cairo, several thousands of Egyptians protested in front of the
US embassy against the same movie, allegedly sponsored by
Americans but not by the US government or Hollywood companies.
BBC said protesters breached the US embassy and tore down the US
flag, which was flying at half mast to mark the 9/11 attack, and
replaced it with an Islamist banner.
US ambassador to Afghanistan Adolph Dubs was assassinated Feb 14,
1979.
An expert in Soviet affairs, Dubs was killed in an exchange of
gunfire between Islamist extremists, who kidnapped the envoy, and
Afghan security forces.
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