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| Sudanese demonstrators attack the US embassy in Khartoum on September 14, 2012. At least one protester was killed on Friday during a demonstration against an anti-Islam film outside the U.S. embassy in Sudan, a doctor said. (Reuters Photo) |
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President
Barack Obama vowed Friday to “stand fast” against spreading anti-US violence
raging in the Arab world, as he mourned four Americans slain in Libya after their
remains were flown home.
In a
heart-rending homecoming, four transfer caskets draped in American flags were
slowly borne from the belly of a giant C-17 transport plane by slow-walking
Marines in dress uniforms, and set down in a hangar.
US
ambassador Chris Stevens and the three other Americans died Tuesday when a mob
furious over an anti-Muslim Internet video made on US soil torched the American
consulate in Benghazi, part of a region-wide eruption of violence.
“Greater
love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends,” Obama
said, quoting the Bible as he honored four “American patriots” for embodying
national qualities of courage, hope and idealism.
“Their
sacrifice will never be forgotten, we will bring to justice those who took them
from us. We will stand fast against the violence on our diplomatic missions,”
Obama said at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.
As he
spoke, a furious wave of anti-American violence ripped across the Middle East
and North Africa, with a crowd invading the US embassy compound in Tunis, and
guards at the US embassy in Khartoum firing warning shots at protesters.
Fresh
violence erupted in Yemen and Cairo and demonstrations took place in
Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Iraq, Israel and the Gaza Strip,
Morocco, Syria, Kuwait, Nigeria and Kenya.
Six people
were killed and dozens injured in Friday’s violence alone.
Obama said
that the “awful” loss and terrible images may cause some to question the
dangerous work of US diplomats abroad, but argued that America must not abandon
its global mission to spread dignity and freedom.
“Even as
voices of suspicion and mistrust seek to divide countries and cultures from one
another, the United States of America will never retreat from the world,” he
vowed.
Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton told grieving relatives of Stevens, information
officer Sean Smith and former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty that the
killings dishonored the spirit of the Arab Spring.
“The people
of Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia did not trade the tyranny of a dictator for
the tyranny of a mob,” she said.
US military
and intelligence agencies have already launched a manhunt in Libya for the
militants who staged the assault on the consulate in Benghazi.
“There’s an
intense focus” on finding the attackers, a US defense official told AFP on
condition of anonymity.
The State
Department was meanwhile working with Middle Eastern and North African nations
to boost security at its missions.
In Yemen
and Libya, teams of US Marines flew in to boost security.
The
violence erupted in response to excerpts of the “Innocence of Muslims” video
mocking Islam that went viral on YouTube.
National
Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told AFP the White House “reached out
to YouTube to call the video to their attention and ask them to review whether
it violates their terms of use.”
On
Wednesday, the Google-owned site said the film was within the firm’s guidelines
and would not be taken down, though access to it was temporarily restricted in
Egypt and Libya.
Officials
said Obama was being repeatedly briefed on the worsening security situation
around US posts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and was mounting a strong
diplomatic push with key regional leaders to restore calm.
He has
spoken personally to the leaders of Egypt, Libya and Yemen, and the White House
said he sent a personal message to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan asking
him to speak out against the violence.
US Vice
President Joe Biden called his Sudanese counterpart Ali Osman Taha to express
concern over the security of the US and other Western embassies in Khartoum.
“Vice
President Biden reaffirmed the responsibility of the government of Sudan to
protect diplomatic facilities and stressed the need for the government of Sudan
to ensure the protection of diplomats in Khartoum,” the White House said
The White
House also denied a report in Britain’s Independent newspaper that it had
advance warning of the attack in Benghazi, which officials in Libya are now
blaming on Al Qaeda.
Agence France-Presse
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