Libya rejects reports of 50 arrests over US consulate attack

Abdel A’al put the number of the arrested at four and said around 50 people were “wanted for investigation.”

“What I have is that four have been arrested,” the Libyan interior minister said on Monday.

    Abdel A’al's remarks were at odds with the comments of the President of Libya’s National Congress, who confirmed on Sunday the arrest of 50 people days after the death of US ambassador to Libya and three American staffers in Benghazi.


Mohammed al-Megaryef put the blame of the US consulate attack on foreigners, who, he said, had come from Mali and Algeria in accordance with a pre-planned scheme a few months ago.

"The number reached about 50... Some of those who joined in the attack were foreigners, who had entered Libya from different directions, some of them definitely from Mali and Algeria,” al-Megaryef said in an interview with CBS News on Sunday.

“It was planned; definitely, it was planned by foreigners, by people who entered the country a few months ago. And they were planning this criminal act since their arrival," he added.

US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans were killed on Tuesday when rocket-propelled grenades were fired on the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city.

The incident took place while a group of people held a demonstration against an anti-Islam movie produced in the United States.

However, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, rejected the idea that the attack on the US consulate was planned months ago.

Washington has been evacuating most of its diplomatic staff from Libya to Germany following the attack.