TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) - It began around
nightfall on Sept. 11 with around 150 bearded gunmen, some wearing the
Afghan-style tunics favored by Islamic militants, sealing off the
streets leading to the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. They set up
roadblocks with pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns,
according to witnesses.
The trucks bore the logo of
Ansar al-Shariah, a powerful local group of Islamist militants who
worked with the municipal government to manage security in Benghazi, the
main city in eastern Libya and birthplace of the uprising last year
that ousted Moammar Gadhafi after a 42-year dictatorship.
There was no sign of a
spontaneous protest against an American-made movie denigrating Islam's
Prophet Muhammad. But a lawyer passing by the scene said he saw the
militants gathering around 20 youths from nearby to chant against the
film. Within an hour or so, the assault began, guns blazing as the
militants blasted into the compound.
One of the consulate's
private Libyan guards said masked militants grabbed him and beat him,
one of them calling him "an infidel protecting infidels who insulted the
prophet."
The witness accounts
gathered by The Associated Press give a from-the-ground perspective for
the sharply partisan debate in the U.S. over the attack that left U.S.
ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead. They
corroborate the conclusion largely reached by American officials that it
was a planned militant assault. But they also suggest the militants may
have used the film controversy as a cover for the attack.
The ambiguity has helped fuel the election-time bickering in the United States ever since.
The Obama administration
has sent out muddled messages whether it was a planned attack or a mob
protest that got out of control. A day after the attack, President
Barack Obama referred to "acts of terror." He told CBS' "60 Minutes" in
an interview aired the following Sunday that he believed those involved
"were looking to target Americans from the start."
Within 24 hours of the
attack, both the embassy in Tripoli and the CIA station chief sent word
to Washington that it was a planned militant attack. Still, days later,
the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, said the attack began as a
spontaneous protest over the film.
Republicans, embroiled in a
heated presidential campaign, seized on the confusion. They have
accused the Obama administration of being hesitant to call it a
"terrorist attack" linked to al-Qaida because that would weaken one of
Obama's key campaign selling points - that under his watch, al-Qaida had
been weakened and Osama bin Laden had been killed..
As that debate roiled, the
actual events - and their meaning - became somewhat skewed in the mouths
of politicians. One assumption often made in the back-and-forth is that
if the attack was planned, then it must have been linked to al-Qaida.
Ansar al-Shariah, the group
whose members are suspected in the attack, is made up of militants with
an al-Qaida-like ideology, but it is not clear whether it has any true
ties to the terror organization. Made up mainly of veterans of last
year's civil war, it is one of the many powerful, heavily armed militias
that operate freely in Libya and in Benghazi, while government control
remains weak. Some Benghazi officials have praised Ansar al-Shariah for
helping keep order in the city, even as they note its jihadi ideology.
With its arsenal of
weapons, the group is capable of carrying out such an attack on the
consulate on its own and even on relatively short notice. Islamist
militias in Benghazi had in previous months threatened to attack the
compound.
U.S. officials say they are
still investigating whether there is an al-Qaida connection. They say
members of Ansar al-Shariah called members of al-Qaida's branch in North
Africa outside of Libya and boasted of the attack. The administration
has even said it is prepared to carry out drone strikes against the
branch, known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, if a link is
proven. But the officials also acknowledge the calls alone do not yet
prove AQIM was involved.
A day after the Benghazi
attack, an unidentified Ansar al-Shariah spokesman said the militia was
not involved "as an organization" - leaving open the possibility members
were involved. He praised the attack as a popular "uprising" sparked by
the anti-Islam film, further propagating the image of a mob attack
against the consulate.
So far, the attackers' motives can only be speculated at.
Yasser el-Sirri, a former
Egyptian militant who runs the Islamic Observation Center in London
closely tracking jihadi groups, said the attack "had nothing to do with
the film but it was a coincidence that served the (militants') purpose."
He believes the ambassador
was the target and the attackers may have been inspired by an al-Qaida
call to avenge the death of a top Libyan jihadist on the anniversary of
the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001. But he offered no firm
evidence that was the motive.
The news trickled out
slowly the night of the attack, with initial reports overshadowed by the
storming of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo by protesters angry over the
film. It was only the next morning that Stevens' death was confirmed.
On the day of the attack
and the next day, The Associated Press referred to it as a mob attack,
based on Libyan officials' comment that there was a significant unarmed
protest at the time. In reporting the following days, AP referred to it
as an "armed attack" and detailed its organized nature.
The past week, the AP has
gathered accounts from five witnesses, including one of the embassy
guards and several people living next door to the consulate compound who
were present when the militants first moved in. Most spoke on condition
of anonymity for fear of reprisals for talking about the attack.
The neighbors all described
the militants setting up checkpoints around the compound at about 8
p.m. The State Department's timeline says the attack itself began at
around 9:40 p.m.
Khaled al-Haddar, a lawyer
who passed by the scene as he headed to his nearby home, said he saw the
fighters gathering a few youths from among passers-by and urged them to
chant against the film.
"I am certain they had
planned to do something like this, I don't know if it was hours or days,
but it was definitely planned," said al-Haddar. "From the way they set
up the checkpoints and gathered people, it was very professional."
The guard said he saw no
protesters. He heard a few shouts of "God is great," then a barrage of
automatic weapons fire and rocket-propelled grenades began, along with
barrages from heavy machine guns mounted on trucks.
The attackers set fire to
the main consulate building. Stevens and another staffer, caught inside
amid the confusion, died of smoke inhalation.
The attack came from the
front and the side. A neighbor whose house is on side of the consulate
compound said militants with their faces wrapped in scarves attacking.
Because of the checkpoints, "it felt like our neighborhood was occupied, no one could get out or in," he said.
The effectiveness of the
roadblocks was later revealed in the State Department's account of the
evacuation. It described how the rescue force came under heavy fire and
grenade attacks as they tried to leave the consulate area.
They evacuated staffers to a
security compound across town, where they continued to come under fire.
A precision mortar hit the compound's building at 4 a.m., killing two
other Americans.
___
Michael reported from Cairo. Osama Alfitory in Benghazi contributed to this report.
Copyright
2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2013 WorldNow and WTVG. All Rights Reserved.
