ABOUT fifty suspects are currently under detention of Libyan authorities for their alleged involvement in last week’s attack on the American consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi, according to the president of the interim legislative assembly of the country.
Mr. Mohamed Magarief made the revelation in an interview with American TV news station, CBS, on Sunday, saying that the Ysysyday attack that killed Christopher J. Stevens, the American ambassador to Libya, was well planned and executed.
Three other American diplomats died in the attack.
“It was planned, definitely, it was planned by foreigners, by people who entered the country a few months ago, and they were planning this criminal act since their arrival,” Mr. Magarief said in a CBS TV interview monitored by sharpedgenews.com in Kansas City, Kansas.
Mr. Magarief said he had no doubt that the attack was staged by Al-Qaeda elements from outside Libya, mentioning Mali and Algeria specifically, although he said he was uncertain about the actual intention of the perpetrators whom he claimed had snuck into Libya through the country’s borders.
The Libyan legislator’s comment apparently contradicted earlier statements made by American envoy to the United Nations, Ms. Susan Rice, who said it was obvious that the diplomats death was the fallout of the general violence in response to a video that Muslims in the Arab world found offensive to their faith.
Sharpedgenews.com had previously reported that most Americans, on the contrary, viewed the deaths of the Americans in Libya as a targeted killing, especially as it coincided with the horrific event of September 11, 2001.
There are also reports, both from the intelligence community, and from remarks made by a range of politicians on Sunday TV talk shows, that the attacks were planned by Al Qaeda affiliates operating in the region.
Earlier, Al Qaeda had praised the deadly attacks in words that pretty much claimed responsibility.
“The killing of Sheikh Abu Yahya only increased the enthusiasm and determination of the sons of (Libyan independence hero) Omar al-Mokhtar to take revenge upon those who attack our Prophet,” said al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula said in a statement, quoted by the US-based monitoring group.