A group of Islamist protesters and gunmen attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Tuesday. The invaders set fire to the consulate building and killed an unidentified American, according to an Israeli national police official.
The Israeli source told the Law Enforcement Examiner that one American official was killed and another American suffered a bullet wound to the hand. Most of the American staff members have been evacuated, but it’s not known if the Marine security detail opened fire on the Islamists.
The attack is being blamed on a U.S. motion picture project that depicts the Prophet Mohammad. Its being shot, according the Islamists’ web sites, in the United States.
The Examiner source said there were reports of rocket-propelled grenades being fired at the consulate from an undisclosed building in Benghazi.
A U.S. intelligence source said that armed Libyans had closed-off the streets leading to the American consulate and that some of them were identified as ultra-radical Salafists.
Muslims consider depiction of the Mohammad as sacrilegious and are known to kill those they claim committed blasphemy.
“This attack, along with the one in Egypt, is a reminder of the Iranian invasion of a U.S. embassy in Tehran that led to a lengthy hostage crisis which brought down the [President Jimmy] Carter administration,” said Thomas Sullivan. Sullivan is a former police official who helped with security when the Shah of Iran and his family sought protection and hospitalization for the former Iranian leader in New York City.
“President [Barack] Obama is so much like Carter in his underestimating the danger posed by these new Islamist governments,” Sullivan added.
