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Obama: Attack will not break US-Libya bonds ... US president condemns Benghazi killings and orders increased security at diplomatic posts around the world.

COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Obama: Attack will not break US-Libya bonds US president condemns Benghazi killings and orders increased security at diplomatic posts around the world.

IMAGE Obama and Clinton both stressed US belief in religious tolerance but said the attack had no justification [AFP]

US President Barack Obama has pledged to bring to justice those who attacked the US consulate in Benghazi.

Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, he said the violent assault that killed the US ambassador to Libya and three other American diplomatic personnel on Tuesday night would not 'break the bonds' between the two countries.

Obama condemned the attack, calling it 'outrageous and shocking', and said he had ordered increased security at US diplomatic posts around the world.

US officials confirmed to Al Jazeera that a special unit of roughly 50 members of the Marine Corps had been dispatched to Libya to reinforce the troops guarding diplomats there.

The Marines' Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team detachment is specially trained to deploy repidly to protect government workers overseas.

Clinton's statement

Obama's remarks followed a public statement by Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, who pointedly drew a distinction between the crowd that attacked the consulate and other Libyans.

'Indeed I asked myself, how could this happen, how could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction,' she said.

'This question reflects just how complicated and at times how confounding the world can be, but we must be clear-eyed even in our grief. This was an attack by a small and savage group, not the people or the government of Libya.'

The consulate attack followed a larger protest at the US embassy in Cairo, where thousands shouted religious slogans and tore apart the US flag.

The incidents in Benghazi and Cairo were apparently prompted by a small-budget, undistributed film produced by an Israeli-American real-estate developer in California that gives an insulting depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.

Clinton and Obama stressed the country's respect for all faiths and history of religious tolerance but said the attack was 'senseless' and unjustifiable.

'Violence like this is no way to honour religion or faith,' Clinton said.

Romney critical

Meanwhile, the campaign of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney criticised the US administration's response to events in Cairo in the hours before Clinton and Obama made their statements and before Stevens's death was confirmed.

Romney's campaign said Obama's initial response was 'disgraceful' and 'was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathise with those who waged the attacks'.

Obama's campaign fired back, with a spokesman saying he was 'shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Governor Romney would choose to launch a political attack'.

A UN official condemned the attack as 'horrific and tragic', and Libya's UN ambassador said an investigation was under way. Ibrahim Dabbashi told the UN Security Council that authorities would bring those responsible to justice.

'This attack in no way serves the interests of the people or the Libyan authorities and cannot be considered as a defence of Islam,' he said. 'This attack gravely damages the image of Islam.'

The Russian foreign ministry also issued a sympathetic statement, saying it considered attacks on diplomats to be 'manifestations of terrorism'.

'Moscow views the events in Cairo and particularly in Benghazi, which led to the tragic deaths of four American diplomats, with deep concern,' the statement said.

'We decisively condemn all attacks on foreign diplomatic representations and their employees as manifestations of terrorism that can have no justification.'

Source: Agencies