Libya arrests 50, rage continues
17 Sep 2012 11:50 PM GMT
Libyan authorities have arrested about 50 people after last week’s killing of US ambassador Chris Stevens in a mob attack in the city of Benghazi, Libya’s parliament chief said on Sunday, saying it was planned by foreigners.
‘The number reached about 50,’ Mohammed al-Megaryef, president of the Libyan National Congress, told CBS News in an interview.
Stevens and and three other Americans were killed on Tuesday when suspected Islamic militants fired on the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city with rocket-propelled grenades and set it ablaze.
Megaryef said ‘a few’ of those who joined in the attack were foreigners, who had entered Libya ‘from different directions, some of them definitely from Mali and Algeria.’ ‘The others are affiliates and maybe sympathizers,’ he added.
Megaryef said the government has learned the attack was not the result of a spontaneous outburst of anger over a US-made anti-Islam movie which has triggered sometimes deadly protests in the Arab and Muslim world.
‘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,’ he told CBS.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has said in a statement the attack was in revenge for the killing of the terror network’s deputy leader Sheikh Abu Yahya al-Libi in a drone strike in June.
Meanwhile, Al Qaeda’s most active branch in the Middle East has called for more attacks on US embassies to ‘set the fires blazing,’ seeking to co-opt outrage over an anti-Muslim film even as the wave of protests that swept 20 countries this week eased.
Senior Muslim religious authorities issued their strongest pleas yet against resorting to violence, trying to defuse Muslim anger over the film a day after new attacks on US and Western embassies that left at least eight protesters dead.
The top cleric in US ally Saudi Arabia denounced the film, but said it can’t really hurt Islam, a contrast to protesters’ frequently heard cries that the movie amounts to a humiliating attack that requires retaliation. He urged Muslims not to be ‘dragged by anger’ into violence. The head of the Sunni Muslim world’s pre-eminent religious institution, Egypt’s Al-Azhar, backed peaceful protests but said Muslims should counter the movie by reviving Islam’s moderate ideas.
GOOGLE BLOCKS ANTI-ISLAM FILM IN INDONESIA
YouTube has begun restricting access to videos of an anti-Islamic film in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, a government official said on Sunday. ‘Google, which is YouTube’s parent company, emailed us on Thursday evening to say it had blocked Indonesia’s access to 16 URLs related to the videos on the site,’ Communications and Information Ministry spokesman Gatot Dewa Broto said. ‘We understand that it takes time for Google to block everything as people continue to upload those sensitive videos. We appreciate Google’s cooperation,’ he said. Broto said the government also wrote to Blackberry maker Research In Motion on Friday to filter the videos on its smartphones.
‘The number reached about 50,’ Mohammed al-Megaryef, president of the Libyan National Congress, told CBS News in an interview.
Stevens and and three other Americans were killed on Tuesday when suspected Islamic militants fired on the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city with rocket-propelled grenades and set it ablaze.
Megaryef said ‘a few’ of those who joined in the attack were foreigners, who had entered Libya ‘from different directions, some of them definitely from Mali and Algeria.’ ‘The others are affiliates and maybe sympathizers,’ he added.
Megaryef said the government has learned the attack was not the result of a spontaneous outburst of anger over a US-made anti-Islam movie which has triggered sometimes deadly protests in the Arab and Muslim world.
‘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,’ he told CBS.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has said in a statement the attack was in revenge for the killing of the terror network’s deputy leader Sheikh Abu Yahya al-Libi in a drone strike in June.
Meanwhile, Al Qaeda’s most active branch in the Middle East has called for more attacks on US embassies to ‘set the fires blazing,’ seeking to co-opt outrage over an anti-Muslim film even as the wave of protests that swept 20 countries this week eased.
Senior Muslim religious authorities issued their strongest pleas yet against resorting to violence, trying to defuse Muslim anger over the film a day after new attacks on US and Western embassies that left at least eight protesters dead.
The top cleric in US ally Saudi Arabia denounced the film, but said it can’t really hurt Islam, a contrast to protesters’ frequently heard cries that the movie amounts to a humiliating attack that requires retaliation. He urged Muslims not to be ‘dragged by anger’ into violence. The head of the Sunni Muslim world’s pre-eminent religious institution, Egypt’s Al-Azhar, backed peaceful protests but said Muslims should counter the movie by reviving Islam’s moderate ideas.
GOOGLE BLOCKS ANTI-ISLAM FILM IN INDONESIA
YouTube has begun restricting access to videos of an anti-Islamic film in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, a government official said on Sunday. ‘Google, which is YouTube’s parent company, emailed us on Thursday evening to say it had blocked Indonesia’s access to 16 URLs related to the videos on the site,’ Communications and Information Ministry spokesman Gatot Dewa Broto said. ‘We understand that it takes time for Google to block everything as people continue to upload those sensitive videos. We appreciate Google’s cooperation,’ he said. Broto said the government also wrote to Blackberry maker Research In Motion on Friday to filter the videos on its smartphones.
Next Story
