Attack on US embassy in Benghazi pre-planned: Libyan Prez

Washington: The attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi that killed American ambassador Chris Stevens was pre-planned and included foreigners, Libyan President said yesterday. President of Libya’s National Congress, Mohamed Magariaf, in an interview to the CBS news aired yesterday said his government has arrested about 50 people, some of which are foreigners and connected to al-Qaeda. “They entered Libya from different directions, and some of them definitely from Mali and Algeria,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_457853” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi that killed American ambassador Chris Stevens was pre-planned and included foreigners, Libyan President said yesterday. AFP[/caption] “These ugly deeds, criminal deeds were directed against them, the late ambassador, Chris Stevens, and his colleagues, does not represent in any way, in any sense, the aspirations, the feelings of Libyans towards the United States and its citizens,” Magariaf said referring to the death of four Americans including the US Ambassador to Libya. “The way these perpetrators acted and moved, I think we — and their choosing the specific date for this so-called demonstration, this leaves us with no doubt that this was preplanned, predetermined,” Magariaf said in response to a question. “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,” he reiterated. The security situation in the country he said is difficult, not only for the Americans, even for Libyans themselves. “We don’t know what are the real intentions of these perpetrators, how they will react. But there is no specific particular concern or danger for Americans or any other foreigners,” he noted. “We firmly believe that this was a pre-calculated, pre-planned attack that was carried out specifically to attack the US Consulate,” he said in an another interview to National Public Radio. PTI