U.S. ambassador killed in attack on consulate in Libya

Armed assailants attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and set fire to the building. (AFP/GettyImages)

An armed man gestures as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames inside the U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi, Libya. Warning: The next photo in this gallery contains an image that may be disturbing to some readers. (AFP/GettyImages )

Libyan civilians help an injured man, identified by eyewitnesses as U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens, at the U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi. (AFP / Getty Images)

In this photo posted on the Facebook page of the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, less than a month before he was killed, U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens, left, shakes hands with a Libyan man in Tripoli.  (U. S. Embassy Tripoli)

Glass, debris and overturned furniture are strewn inside a room in the gutted U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. (Ibrahim Alaguri / Associated Press)

A man looks at documents at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, after an attack that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. The graffiti reads “no God but God,” “God is great” and “Muhammad is the Prophet.”  (Ibrahim Alaguri / Associated Press)

A burned car is seen after an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. (Ibrahim Alaguri / Associated Press)

Damage after an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.  (Ibrahim Alaguri / Associated Press)

Then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton looks on as President Obama hugs a State Department employee. Obama came to the State Department in Washington, D.C., to meet with staff after the killing of U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and three others at the U.S. Consulate building in Benghazi, Libya. (Paul J. Richards / AFP / Getty Images)