Washington, Oct 1 (IANS) The US intelligence has revised its assessment of the attack on the consulate in Libya that killed ambassador Christopher Stevens, saying it now believes it was a deliberate terrorist assault, CNN reported.
In a statement, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence sought to explain how it has revised its view of the Sep 11 attack on the diplomatic post that killed Stevens and three others.
The assessment moves away from the initial belief that the Benghazi attack began spontaneously following a protest over an anti-Muslim film.
The US intelligence now believes it was “a deliberate and organised terrorist assault carried out by extremists” affiliated or sympathetic with the Al Qaeda.
“In the immediate aftermath, there was information that led us to assess that the attack began spontaneously following protests earlier that day at our embassy in Cairo,” according to the statement from Shawn Turner, director of public affairs for the national intelligence office.
The statement said the information was provided to the White House and Congress with the clear understanding that it was preliminary and could change.
“As we learned more about the attack, we revised our initial assessment to reflect new information indicating that it was a deliberate and organized terrorist attack carried out by extremists,” CNN quoted the statement as saying.
Recently, Matt Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, also described the incident as a terror attack, but noted it was not “significantly planned”.
