Embassy attacks: US withdraws staff from Tunisia and Sudan

The US withdrew non-essential staff from Tunisia and Sudan on Sunday, following days of attacks on their embassies provoked by a film mocking the Prophet Mohammed.

There were further clashes across the Middle East, Africa and Asia over the anti-Islam film said to have triggered those protests on Sunday. One man was killed in Hyderabad, Pakistan, while five people were injured in clashes with police in Karachi as around 1,000 protesters tried to reach the US consulate. Protesters also burned a flag outside the US embassy in Ankara, Turkey.

Canada closed its embassies in Cairo, Tripoli and Khartoum for the day as a safety precaution, while Germany followed the US lead and withdrew some staff from its Sudanese embassy.

As Western embassies remained on high alert yesterday it emerged Libya and America were in disagreement over who was responsible for the death of Chris Stevens, the US ambassador, in Benghazi last week and even how to investigate it.

Mohammed Magarief, Libya's acting president, seemed to confirm reports in Tripoli that his government was holding up the arrival of an FBI team sent by the White House, saying it was "better for them to stay away".

He insisted the attack on the consulate in which the ambassador was killed was premeditated, involving al-Qaeda and foreign elements. His own security officials, led by the man in charge of policing the consulate compound, insisted however that there was a spontaneous demonstration that got out of hand.

That view was supported by Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, even though American officials briefed over the weekend that they had evidence al-Qaeda was in communication on the day of the attack with Ansar al-Sharia, a local Islamist group. The group has repeatedly denied taking part.

The Obama administration claims to be working closely with the Libyans. But a security official in Benghazi, Abdulsalam al-Bargathi, confirmed that the FBI team dispatched to the city had yet to arrive.

"I have been told to expect a team but it has not arrived yet," he said.

Intelligence sources said giving approval for the team was the responsibility of the new prime minister, Mustafa Abushagur, who was only elected last week.

Magarief said in an interview: "It may be better for them to stay away for a little while until we do what we have to do ourselves."

Al-Bargathi is a commander of the combined militia force running security in Benghazi, and was in charge during the attack on Tuesday night.

A measure of the task facing investigators is his refusal to accept Islamist militants were responsible for the attack at all, which he said was triggered by shots being fired at protesters by American guards inside the compound.

He said that those outside at the time were ordinary protesters who reacted angrily by going to fetch weapons.

He said he had rung the head of the local branch of Ansar al-Sharia to ask if his men were there and to call them off, but was assured it was nothing to do with the group. "I believe him," he said.

He added, "Maybe this is a conspiracy by the United States. Maybe the ambassador was sacrificed to give a reason for the Americans to come into Libya. That is my personal opinion."

He also denied a statement by the deputy interior minister, Wanis al-Sharif, that 50 suspects had been arrested, saying only four men were in custody.

They are believed to be two brothers, one aged 16 and a member of Ansar al-Sharia, the other 26, and two men with criminal records.