Death of US diplomat in Libyan raid sparks fears

US President Barack Obama has condemned the attack on the Benghazi consulate and a safe house refuge in which the US ambassador to Libya and three embassy staff were killed.

Islamist gunmen attacked and set fire to the US consulate in the eastern city, the cradle of last year’s US-backed uprising against Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year rule, blaming America for a film they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad.

Another assault was mounted on the US embassy in Cairo.

Obama branded it an “outrageous attack” and ordered increased security at US diplomatic posts worldwide.

Violence also threatened to spread to other Muslim countries. By nightfall, 24 hours after the attacks in Egypt and Libya, police were firing teargas at angry demonstrators outside the US embassy in Tunisia.

The attacks could alter US attitudes towards the wave of revolutions across the Arab world, which toppled secularist authoritarian leaders in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, bringing Islamists to power.

The violence could influence a close-fought US presidential election, in which Obama’s challenger Mitt Romney has accused him of not defending US interests robustly enough.

Romney issued a statement criticising Obama’s initial response; the president’s campaign responded by accusing him of scoring political points at a time of national tragedy.

It was not immediately clear precisely how or where California-born ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed during the assault. Stevens was a key player when the Obama administration supported the anti-Gaddafi insurgency.

US consular staff were rushed to a safe house after the initial attack, Libya’s deputy interior minister Wanis Al-Sharif said. An evacuation plane with US commando units then arrived from Tripoli to evacuate them from the house.

“It was supposed to be a secret place and we were surprised the armed groups knew about it. There was shooting,” Sharif said. Two US personnel were killed there, he said. Two other people were killed at the main consular building and between 12 and 17 were wounded.

The amateurish film that sparked the furore portrayed Mohammad as a fool, a philanderer and a religious fake. Cartoons in a Danish paper in 2006 led to riots in which at least 50 people died.