Britain's Foreign Office says it is temporarily withdrawing some staff from its embassy in the Libyan capital in light of recent political unrest. Heavily armed militias have been besieging government buildings in Tripoli over the past month, blocking access to ministries to push their political demands. The Foreign Office said...
A senior US diplomat has disputed the White House's account of the attack on the US mission in Libya last year, and claims that the State Department's review "let people off the hook," CNN reports. In an interview with congressional investigators, Greg Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in...
Two guards were injured when a car bomb exploded outside France's embassy in Tripoli this morning in the first such attack on a foreign mission in the Libyan capital since the fall of Moammar Gadhafi. French President Francois Hollande called the bombing an attack on "all countries in the international...
President Obama has nominated a longtime diplomat to the Mideast as the US' next ambassador to Libya, filling the sensitive post that has been vacant since Chris Stevens was killed in an attack on the American consulate in September and signaling the United States' commitment to the North African country...
The start of the revolution that led to the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi will be commemorated in Libya on Sunday, and the country is bracing itself for what may come. Bloomberg reports that foreigners have been exiting Libya in anticipation; the borders with Egypt and Tunisia have been closed; and...
The State Department didn't provide its Benghazi team with enough protection against possible threats, a bipartisan Senate report finds, marking the second slap at State this month over the Libya attack. What's more, intelligence pointed to the attack being the work of terrorists all along—but the Obama administration's comments...
Weapons shipped by Qatar to rebels in Libya—with US approval—also made their way into the hands of radical Islamic militants during last year's uprisings, reports the New York Times. US officials grew concerned as evidence mounted that Qatar was also delivering weapons to extremists, and officials say President...
Libya's deputy interior minister says gunmen assassinated Benghazi's security chief overnight. Col. Farag al-Dersi was shot dead while returning from work. "Three men opened fire, killed him, and then fled the scene," says the minister, adding that it was unclear who is behind the killing. The country's second largest city...
David Petraeus will indeed testify on Capitol Hill about the Benghazi attack, reports AP. The former CIA chief will appear before the House Intelligence committee on Friday, though the hearing will be closed to the public. Petraeus visited Libya secretly last month, and lawmakers are antsy to hear his own...
Resignation or not, Democrats and Republicans alike are clamoring for David Petraeus to testify at this week's congressional hearings about the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, and this could be why: Petraeus took a secret trip to Libya last month, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attack...
The State Department received plenty of warnings about deteriorating security in Libya before the deadly attack on the Benghazi consulate last month but there was no specific warning that the compound would be a target, the New York Times finds. But while interviews with officials and a review of State...
With the end of her tenure at the State Department seemingly consumed by the controversy over Libya, Hillary Clinton is considering staying on a bit longer, she tells the Wall Street Journal. "A lot of people have talked to me about staying," Clinton says. Until now, Clinton has been adamant...
Tunisia says it has a 28-year-old Tunisian national in custody who is linked to the attack on the US consulate in Libya that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens, reports the AP. Details are sketchy, but the suspect has been identified as Ali Harzi. It's unclear exactly what role he played, but...
More information about the confusion in the days following the Sept. 11 attack on the US consulate in Libya: Emails obtained by Reuters show that scarcely more than two hours after the attack, the White House, Pentagon, and FBI were informed that a Libyan militant group had claimed responsibility. For...
New details are emerging revealing the confusion surrounding the attack on the US consulate in Libya that left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead: For 10 days after the attack, the CIA told President Obama in his daily intelligence briefing that the siege came out of a spontaneous...
Libyan security officials say Ahmed Abu Khattalah, founder of Islamist militia Ansar al-Sharia, was at the US consulate in Libya during the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens—the most direct link between the militia and the attack so far, though officials have been focusing on Ansar al-Sharia for a...
Hoping to prevent a repeat of last month's attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, the Obama administration is ratcheting up efforts to help build a new Libyan commando force. Work was under way on the force before the attack, but the US is looking to speed the process. Congress...
The Romney campaign is eager to attack President Obama over the attack on the US consulate in Libya. But that was ultimately the result of "poor security decisions by mid-level State Department officials, not policy choices by Obama," writes Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post. If you want to attack...
State Department officials said today that security levels at the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, were adequate for the threat level on the anniversary of 9/11 but that the compound was overrun by an "unprecedented attack" by dozens of heavily armed extremists. The officials testified before a congressional hearing on...
The State Department now says it never believed the Sept. 11 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi was a film protest gone awry, giving congressional Republicans new fodder for criticizing the Obama administration's initial accounts of the assault. The State Department's extraordinary break with other administration offices came in...