U.S. Ambassador to Libya Is Reported Killed by Protesters in Benghazi

Breaking News Alert

The New York Times

Wednesday, September 12, 2012 — 7:24 AM EDT

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The Libyan government said Wednesday that United States ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed along with three of his staff in an attack on the consulate in Benghazi Tuesday night in the first death of an American envoy abroad in more than two decades.

The U.S. State Department declined to confirm or deny the reports and said the previous night that only a single unnamed embassy employee had been killed. But if confirmed, the killing, during at attack by an armed mob angry over a short American-made video mocking Islam’s founding prophet, threatens to upset Washington’s relations with the new Libyan government that took over after the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and sour American public opinion about the prospects of the democratic opening of the Arab spring.

Mr. Stevens, a veteran of U.S. diplomatic missions in Libya, served in Benghazi during the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi, and he was widely admired by the Libyan rebels for his support of their struggle to overthrow Colonel Qaddafi.