Western leaders and officials all condemned
the
attack that killed US Ambassador to
Libya and 3 other Americans in Benghazi as did Lebanon's Shi'ite militant group
Hezbollah.
The assault followed a protest in neighboring Egypt where demonstrators
scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy, tore down the American flag and
burned it during a protest over a film which they said insulted
the Prophet Mohammad.
The protesters had demanded action by the president.
Accordingly, Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi asked the Egyptian embassy in
Washington to take legal action in the United States against makers of a
film attacking the Muslim Prophet Mohammad, the official state news
agency said on Wednesday.
Mursi had requested the mission take
"all legal measures", the MENA agency said, without giving further
details on what that might involve.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai sharply
condemned the film in a statement, calling its making a "devilish
act", saying he was certain those involved in its production represented a
very small minority.
Afghanistan shut down the YouTube site so
Afghans would not be able to see the film.
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Later on Wednesday, Afghan
Taliban called on Afghans to prepare
for a fight against Americans over the Prophet Mohammad film, urging their
fighters to "take revenge" on U.S. soldiers.
President
Barack Obama vowed on Wednesday to work with Libya to bring to justice
attackers who killed the U.S. ambassador and other diplomats but said the
killings would not hurt U.S.-Libyan ties.
For her part, U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton condemned the attack an attack that killed the U.S.
ambassador to Libya as the work of a "small and savage group" but
said U.S.-Libyan ties would not suffer. Clinton said a free and stable Libya was in U.S. interests and that ties
between the two countries would not be a "casualty" of the attack.
Earlier, French President Francois Hollande strongly condemned the incident,
describing the rocket attack on their car in Benghazi as an "odious"
crime. Hollande called on Libya to do everything to find those behind the
attack and bring them to justice.
In the same context, Russia expressed
deep concern over the attack in a statement issued by the Russian Foreign
Ministry.
Libyan
positions
Libya's interim leader, Mohammed Magarief, apologized to the US over the killings, which he called "cowardly criminal acts".
For his
part, the Libyan Deputy PM said on twitter he condemns the "cowardly act
of attacking the US consulate and the killing of ambassador, Mr. Stevens, and
other diplomats."
In turn, a senior Libyan official accused supporters of the late Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi of carrying out an attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to
Libya and three other Americans in Benghazi.
As for Deputy Interior Minister Wanis al-Sharif, he told a news conference in
Benghazi that the attackers had used rocket-propelled grenades. "There
were RPGs...which shows there were forces exploiting this. They are remnants of
the (former) regime," he said. The news conference was broadcast on Al
Jazeera television.
He suggested that the attackers could have been acting in revenge for the
extradition from Mauritania this month of Gaddafi's former intelligence chief
Abdullah al-Senoussi.
Gaddafi was ousted by rebel forces backed by NATO air power in August 2011 and
was killed in October after months as a fugitive.
REUTERS