Libya makes ‘arrests’ for deadly attack on US mission

Libya said on Thursday it has made arrests and opened a probe into an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi that killed the American ambassador, amid speculation that al-Qaeda rather than a frenzied mob was to blame.

“The interior and justice ministries have begun their investigations and evidence gathering and some people have been arrested,” the deputy interior minister, Wanis al-Sharif, told reporters.

He declined to give any details of the number of people in custody or their backgrounds “so as not to hamper the smooth running of the investigation.”

The announcement of the inquiry comes as protests against a low-budget, privately produced film denigrating the Prophet Mohammed – the spark of Tuesday’s attack on the Benghazi mission – spread across the Arab world.

“All measures are being taken. An independent judicial committee has been set up to carry out an inquiry,” Abdelmonem al-Horr, spokesman for the interior ministry’s security commission, told reporters.

Tuesday’s assault on the consulate was initially believed to have been motivated by outrage over an amateur internet film made in America that insulted Islam, but US officials later said it might have been a planned, pre-meditated assault by al-Qaeda affiliates or sympathisers.