Libyan President Magarief: “Algerians, Malians among those involved in U.S. consulate attack in Benghazi”

Libya’s President Mohamed Magarief said on Sunday that about 50 people had been arrested in connection with the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last week, which he said was planned by some foreigners including Algerians and Malians linked to extremist groups.

• The attack on Tuesday in Benghazi came amid widespread violent protests in numerous Muslim countries over a blameworthy video film made in the United States that Muslims vehemently blasted as blaspheming the holy Prophet Mohammed, God’s peace and blessings be upon him.
• President Magarief, in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” program said some of those arrested were not Libyans and were linked to al Qaeda, the terror group said to be behind the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
• Mr Magarief, who became Libya’s president after the bloody ouster of the Gaddafi regime, described others as “affiliates or sympathizers”.
• “It was definitely planned by foreigners, by people who entered the country a few months ago and they had been planning criminal acts since their arrival on Libyan soil,” President Magarief said, adding that some of them were from Algeria and Mali.
• He explained that the security situation in Libya remained “difficult” for Americans, as well as for Libyans themselves.
• The United States wants the FBI to investigate the consulate attack, but President Magarief said it may be too soon to send in investigators.
• “It may be better for them to stay away for a little while until we do what we have to do ourselves,” he stated.
• President Mohamed Magarief said: ” There was little doubt the assault was planned rather than a spontaneous reaction to the outrageous anti-Islam video film, citing the fact that it came on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks”.