(With video) US ambassador to Libya killed in 'protest' over film that offended Muslims

The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other embassy staff were killed in a rocket attack on their car, a Libyan official said, as they were rushed from a consular building stormed by militants denouncing a U.S.-made film insulting the Prophet Mohammad.



Gunmen had attacked and burned the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, a center of last year's uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, late on Tuesday evening, killing one U.S. consular official. The building was evacuated.



The Libyan official said the ambassador, Christopher Stevens, was being driven from the consulate building to a safer location when gunmen opened fire.



"The American ambassador and three staff members were killed when gunmen fired rockets at them," the official in Benghazi told Reuters.



There was no immediate comment from the State Department in Washington. U.S. ambassadors in such volatile countries are accompanied by tight security, usually travelling in well-protected convoys. Security officials will be considering whether the two attacks were coordinated.

Bacile identifies himself as an Israeli Jew and said he produced, directed and wrote the two-hour film, "Innocence of Muslims”.



Speaking by phone to the Associated Press from an undisclosed location, Bacile, who went into hiding Tuesday, remained defiant, saying Islam is a “cancer” and that he intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion.



Bacile said he believed the film will help his native land by exposing Islam's flaws to the world.



"Islam is a cancer, period," he repeatedly said, claiming the film cost £3.3 million to make and was financed with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors.



He said he had worked with some 60 actors and 45 crew to make the two-hour movie in a three-month period last year in California. “The movie is a political movie. It’s not a religious movie,” he said.



It is being promoted by controversial Florida pastor Terry Jones, who has drawn protests in the past for burning the Koran and vehemently opposing the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero in New York.



Jones said he planned to show a 13-minute clip of the film Tuesday evening at his church in Gainesville, Florida.



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A 14-minute trailer of the movie that sparked the protests, posted on the website YouTube in an original English version and another dubbed into Egyptian Arabic, depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.



The website's guidelines call for removing videos that include a threat of violence, but not those that only express opinions. YouTube's practice is not to comment on specific videos.

The United States ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other embassy employees were killed in a rocket attack on the United States Consulate in Benghazi on Tuesday night. The attack was part of a 'protest' by adherents of the 'religion of peace' against a film being made in the United States - apparently by an Israeli.Let's go to the videotape (which was done before it was announced that four were dead including the ambassador).Meanwhile, London's Daily Telegraph reports that the film maker, Israeli American Sam Bacile (contrary to what you just heard in the video above, he is apparently the film maker), has gone into hiding The English version has been online since July, but the Arabic version just went up last week. I guess that's what got their attention.Here's a 1:32 trailer of the film.Let's go to the videotape.The full 14-minute version that's online in English may be found

Labels: Benghazi, Cairo, Mohamed, Religion of Peace