WASHINGTON, Sept 28, 2012 (AFP) -
WASHINGTON, Sept 28, 2012 (AFP) –
The US intelligence community said Friday that a deadly assault on a US consulate in Libya was a planned attack linked to Al-Qaeda but stressed that “many unanswered questions” remained.
“It remains unclear if any group or person exercised overall command and control of the attack, and if extremist group leaders directed their members to participate,” Shawn Turner, spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said in a statement.
“We do assess that some of those involved were linked to groups affiliated with, or sympathetic to Al-Qaeda.”
President Barack Obama’s administration has offered varied explanations as to who may have been behind the September 11 attack on the American diplomatic mission in the eastern city of Benghazi, drawing criticism from Republican opponents weeks before a US presidential election.