A large group of protesters has been gathering in Cairo, Egypt, since the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney all condemned the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that led to the deaths of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans NBC's Brian Mooar reports.
By M. Alex Johnson and Daniel Strieff, NBC News
New in this version: Adds National Security Council comment; Marines could be deployed
Updated at 2:17 p.m. ET: U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday that they couldn't rule out the possibility that al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist militants were responsible for the attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.
Carrie Dann, Richard Engel, Ellie Hall, Alicia Jennings, Jim Miklaszewski, Andrea Mitchell, Kerry Sanders, Jeanee Vonessen, Ali Weinberg and Robert Windrem of NBC News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Libyan officials and postings on Islamist websites from known militant activists suggested that the attack —which officials had previously suggested was retaliation for release of a movie critical of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad — may also have been revenge for the death of a top al-Qaeda leader in June.
Libyan Deputy Interior Minister Wanis al-Sharif said in a briefing for reporters Wednesday that the U.S. government should have removed its staff from the country when news of the film's release broke because of festering tensions surrounding the killing of deputy al-Qaeda leader Abu Yahya al-Libi.
"It was necessary that they take precautions," Sharif said. "It was their fault that they did not take the necessary precautions."
Libya's interim president, Mohammed el-Megarif, suggested that the attack was timed to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. to "destroy democracy in Libya."
Follow live developments from Libya on BreakingNews.com
In his annual statement marking the anniversary Tuesday, Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri called for Islamists to seek revenge for the killing of al-Liby, and online postings Wednesday from Islamist militants celebrated the attack as payback for al-Liby's death, said Evan Kohlmann, an Middle East and terrorism analyst for NBC News.
AFP - Getty Images
A man waves his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames after being set on fire inside the U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi.
Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council, told NBC News that "it would be premature to ascribe any motive to this reprehensible act," and other U.S. officials said they couldn't rule out the possibility of a link. Officials said they were preparing to send as many as 200 Marines to Libya to bolster security around the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.
The Marine Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team would be deployed from a Marine Amphibious Ready Group, already positioned aboard a helicopter carrier in the North Arabian Sea, officials told NBC News.
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In addition, the Defense and State departments were considering sending additional Marines to other potential trouble spots, including Cairo and Kabul, which have both seen sectarian flare-ups against the U.S.
The officials said that as of now there was no plan for an all-out evacuation of U.S. government personnel from Libya.
Obama condemns attack
President Barack Obama condemned the attack, in which U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed after protesters stormed the U.S. consulate Tuesday night in Benghazi.
President Barack Obama, alongside Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, condemns the "outrageous and shocking attack" that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
"Make no mistake: Justice will be done," Obama said Wednesday.
Stevens was the first U.S. ambassador to be killed during an assignment since Adolph Dubs was slain in an exchange of gunfire during a kidnapping attempt in Afghanistan in 1979.
Ambassador Stevens was 'courageous and exemplary,' Obama says
Obama said in an earlier statement that Sean Smith, a Foreign Service information management officer and father of two children, was also among those who had been killed. Smith had previously been posted to the U.S. Consulate in Montreal, the U.S. Mission in Canada confirmed.
The State Department said the families of the two other victims were still being notified.
"While the United States rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants," Obama said in a statement.
Vice President Joe Biden, meanwhile, insisted the U.S. wouldn't be driven from the country.
"We never have been, and we never will be, run off, period," Biden said at a campaign event in Dayton, Ohio. "That's not who we are."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that the attack "should shock the people of all faiths around the world."
"I ask myself, how could this happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction?" she said. "This question reflects just how complicated and, at times, how confounding the world can be."
Romney slams Obama over attacks on US officials in Libya, Egypt
Attackers 'just wanted to find an American'
Descriptions of Tuesday's attack described chaos and bloodshed, with Libyan security overrun and retreating.
The Libya Herald quoted a demonstrator at the consulate as saying the protest was peaceful until police and other security forces began firing into the air. A protester then fired a rocket-propelled grenade launcher at a police vehicle but hit the consulate building on Venezia Street, instead, he said.
Ziad Abu Zeid, a Libyan doctor who treated Stevens, said he died of severe asphyxiation, apparently from smoke. In a sign of the chaos of during the attack, Stevens was taken alone by Libyans to the Benghazi Medical Center with no other Americans, and no one at the facility knew who he was, Abu Zeid told the Associated Press.
Stevens was practically dead when he arrived close to 1 a.m. Wednesday (7 p.m. ET Tuesday), and "we tried to revive him for an hour and a half but with no success," Abu Zeid said. The ambassador had bleeding in his stomach because of the asphyxiation but had no other injuries, he said.
Mohammed el-Megarif, Libya's interim president, apologized to the U.S. for the deadly attack. ITV's Richard Pallot reports.
Demonstrations in Benghazi and in Egypt broke out Tuesday following news reports about the anti-Islamic video, which — if a trailer posted on YouTube is representative — features an amateur cast performing a wooden dialogue of insults disguised as revelations about Muhammad.
More Middle East & North Africa coverage on NBCNews.com
The attacks were the first such assaults on U.S. diplomatic facilities in either country, at a time when both Libya and Egypt are struggling to overcome the turmoil following the ouster of their longtime leaders, Moammar Gadhafi and Hosni Mubarak, in uprisings last year.
Esam Omran Al-Fetori / Reuters
Flames engulf the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi late Tuesday.
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The events appeared to underscore how much the ground in the Middle East has shifted for Washington, which for decades had close ties with Arab dictators who could be counted on to muzzle dissent.
The diplomatic crisis in Libya and Egypt quickly turned political as the Obama and Romney campaigns traded statements overnight. NBC's Chuck Todd reports.
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