Obama to Attend Ceremony for Americans Killed in Libya
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JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — President Obama will travel to Andrews Air Force Base this afternoon to attend the transfer of the remains ceremony of the four Americans killed in Libya earlier this week.
U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, Information Management Officer Sean Smith and security personnel Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed in the assault.
The president has strongly condemned the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and vowed to “bring to justice the killers.”
“There is absolutely no justification for this type of senseless violence, none,” Obama said in response to the attack on Wednesday.
U.S. officials are investigating whether the violence was a pre-planned attack intended to coincide with the 9/11 anniversary or linked to the broader protests in the region in response to an online anti-Islam film.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will also attend today’s transfer ceremony.
The solemn transfer of remains is a precise ceremony on the tarmac where transfer cases bearing the remains of the American casualties are carried off the aircraft and set down with honors on U.S. soil.
The families of Ambassador Stevens and the three U.S. government casualties have gathered, and State Department colleagues of the victims are being brought to the air base as well.
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