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Tag: Benghazi

  • Nine Libyan govt. soldiers die in Benghazi clash

    Nine Libyan govt. soldiers die in Benghazi clash

    Nine Libyan army soldiers have been killed in the eastern city of Benghazi in clashes with militants after the army took control of a crucial area in the city, a military source said on Friday.

    The army took control of Ganfouda District recently, an area known as “12 blocks’’ that used to be a haven for militants in Benghazi.

    The Libyan army, led by Maj.-Gen. Khalifa Haftar had been waging war for more than two years against militant groups in Benghazi, a military operation Haftar referred to as “Dignity’’.

    In spite of ground success, the army still does not have full control of the city.

    An Army Spokesman said the area had been secured on Thursday, revealing that the air forces targeted militant positions.

    The spokesman said that the troops were still making progress on the ground, and the army took over heavy artillery and tanks the militants left behind.

    Libya has been suffering from insecurity and violence since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The country is plagued with political division and unrest.

  • Benghazi attack: Congress to quiz Clinton

    Benghazi attack: Congress to quiz Clinton

    Former U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will on Thursday appear before a congressional committee to answer questions about the 2012 attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya.

    The Select Committee on Benghazi will question Clinton in what is expected to be an eight-hour hearing about the Sept. 11, 2012, attack that killed four Americans, including U.S. Amb. Christopher Stevens.

    Clinton and Democrats have said questions about the attack have already been answered in previous investigations and allege that the hearings are politically motivated to damage Clinton’s presidential bid.

    Republican Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy denies those charges and insists he is focused on getting to the bottom of the attack.

    “She’s a witness, she was the secretary of state, you have to talk to her,’’ he told newsmen, while stressing that he is more interested in witnesses to the actual attack.

    “What I want to know is while violence in Libya is going up, why is security going down,’’ Gowdy said.

    Two Republicans, including majority leader Kevin McCarthy, have in recent weeks noted the investigation has damaged Clinton politically, but were later forced to backtrack.

    The State Department and Clinton have faced years of questions about security in Benghazi and the lack of response to requests from diplomats to beef up security.

    The congressional inquiry brought to light Clinton’s exclusive use of private email for official business while serving as secretary of state.

    The emails had become a liability in her presidential campaign, raising questions about transparency, judgment, technical security and the handling of sensitive communications relating to the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi.

    The email issue has evoked voters’ memories of the scandals and secrecy that often plagued her husband, President Bill Clinton, during his 1993-2001 administration.

    It would be recalled that islamist militants attacked U.S. facilities in Benghazi, killing Stevens and another diplomat and two CIA employees prompting U.S. officials to characterise the attack as the result of a spontaneous anti-American protest against an anti-Muslim film.

    Questions about when U.S. officials dubbed the attack terrorism plagued the administration even as Obama referred to “acts of terror’’ in remarks the day after the attack.

    The long-running inquiry has tested Clinton’s patience, prompted a testy exchange during her previous testimony on Benghazi in 2013.

    Clinton had previously stated that “with all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans, was it because of a protest, or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided that they’d they go kill some Americans’’.

    “What difference at this point does it make’’.

    The phrase “what difference does it make’’ has since been used repeatedly by Clinton’s critics to accuse her of callousness- as experts say that it could have consequences for her presidential ambitions.

  • US envoy admits Benghazi error

    US envoy admits Benghazi error

    A United States diplomat hotly tipped to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has admitted releasing incorrect information after September’s attack on the American consulate in Libya.

    United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice said there had been no attempt to mislead the public, but Republicans were unconvinced.

    After meeting Ms. Rice on Tuesday, senators said they were troubled.

    The envoy said her initial line that the Benghazi attack appeared to have sprung from a protest had been wrong.

    BBC reports that the September 11 assault on the U.S consulate triggered a major political row over who knew what and when.

    Days afterwards, Ms. Rice, 48, said in a series of TV interviews that it seemed to have developed out of protests over an anti-Islamic film.

    Later intelligence reports suggested it was possibly tied to al-Qaeda affiliates.

    The attack left four Americans dead, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

     

  • Murder in Benghazi

    Murder in Benghazi

    Libya and its pro-democracy revolution had no better friend than J. Christopher Stevens, the United States ambassador who was killed along with three other Americans in Tuesday’s attack on the consulate in Benghazi. It was an outrageous act that deserved the strongest condemnation.
    President Obama’s statement of outrage and his vow to bring the killers to justice received bipartisan support, including from politicians otherwise committed to partisan warfare, like the House speaker, John Boehner, and the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, who rarely misses a chance to attack Mr. Obama.
    But not from Mitt Romney, who wants Americans to believe he can be president but showed an extraordinary lack of presidential character by using the murders of the Americans in Libya as an excuse not just to attack Mr. Obama, but to do so in a way that suggested either a dangerous ignorance of the facts or an equally dangerous willingness to twist them to his narrow partisan aims.
    Mr. Romney could easily have held his fire during this crisis, if he could not summon the decency to support the United States government. Instead, he misrepresented the administration as “sympathizing” with the attackers. There was no truth in what he said. In fact, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made the first official comment on the killings, a strong condemnation, before Mr. Romney released his statement. Even after having a night to reconsider his response, Mr. Romney merely doubled down on his false charges, as he is prone to do.
    Mr. Stevens, 52, was Washington’s envoy to the rebels in Libya when they were overthrowing Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. He became ambassador and, undaunted by the dangers, worked to build partnerships among the country’s disparate groups and guide the fragile new democracy during a difficult transition. A fluent Arabic speaker, he had a deep understanding of Libya’s culture and people.
    On Wednesday, the Obama administration said it appeared that an organized group armed with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades had exploited a protest over an anti-Muslim video to unleash the attack. Some news reports suggested Al Qaeda may have been responsible. American officials noted the contrast with Egypt, where unarmed protesters, decrying the same video, spontaneously stormed the Embassy perimeter and tore down a flag but did little other damage.
    Libya’s shaky new government will need American support to bring the killers to justice. The origins of the video, which mocks the Prophet Muhammad, are not clear. There is considerable speculation about who even produced the film, which largely went unnoticed until it was promoted on the Internet by Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian ally of Terry Jones, a Florida pastor and hatemonger whose threats to burn a copy of the Koran inspired deadly riots in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011.
    However offensive the video is, it could never justify the violence in Benghazi and Cairo. But Mr. Jones, Mr. Sadek and whoever made the film did true damage to the interests of the United States and its core principle of respecting all faiths.
    Religious fundamentalists, moderates and liberal secularists are all jockeying for power in Middle East nations after the Arab Spring. The violence done on Tuesday was apparently the work of a relatively small group of radicals not associated with any legitimate protest.
    The worst thing now would be for the United States to turn away from its commitments to work with Libya and Egypt as they try to build stable new societies. A number of Libyan security guards died trying to save the Americans, and Libyan leaders have condemned the killings and promised to work to apprehend those responsible. Egyptian leaders, inexplicably, have not followed that lead.
    – New York Times