In response to a series of recent attacks on U.S. missions in the Arab world, including an attack in Benghazi, Libya that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other embassy staff members, White House Spokesman Jay Carney announced on Friday that U.S. President Barack Obama sent a personal message to Prime Minister Erdoğan requesting he speak out against the violence.
Carney went on to state, "As you can see, Prime Minister Erdoğan did just that. Prime Minister Obama is extremely appreciative of Erdoğan's statements."
Angry anti-American protests have swept the Muslim world in response to a film that insults the Prophet Mohammad. US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens was killed on Tuesday in an attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi during violent protests against the release of a 13-minute trailer of a movie called "Innocence of Muslims."A day after Obama led a somber ceremony marking the return of the bodies of the Americans killed in Libya; Obama acknowledged that a surge of anti-American violence in the Middle East is disturbing. The Pentagon is sending Marines to beef up security at the U.S. embassy in Sudan, following similar reinforcements to Libya and Yemen.
The fury about over the film that insults the Prophet Mohammad tore across the Middle East after weekly prayers on Friday with protesters attacking U.S. embassies and burning American flags as the Pentagon rushed to bolster security at its missions. At least seven people were killed as local police struggled to repel assaults after weekly Muslim prayers in Tunisia and Sudan, while there was new violence in Egypt and Yemen and across the Muslim world, driven by emotions ranging from piety to anger at Western power to frustrations with local leaders and poverty. A Taliban attack on a base in Afghanistan that killed two Americans may also have been timed to coincide with protests.
But three days after the amateurish film of obscure origin triggered an attack on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi that killed the ambassador and three other Americans on Sept. 11, President Barack Obama led a ceremony to honor the returning dead and vowed to "stand fast" against the violence. "The United States will never retreat from the world," said Obama.
