After Nuland weighed in, the reference to Ansar al-Sharia was scrubbed from the account.
Why do we want the Hill to be fingering Ansar al-Sharia when we aren't doing that ourselves.
Ansar al-Sharia demanded the authorities release Islamist fighters from jail in exchange for the soldiers' safe return.
Despite the intensified attacks, Ansar al-Sharia, an al Qaeda-affiliated group, says it controls most strategic areas in the southern province.
Mr Megarief says signals were intercepted between Ansar al-Sharia and al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, an umbrella for jihadist groups in north Africa.
On Friday, thousands of demonstrators in Benghazi stormed the compound of the militant Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia and set it on fire.
Earlier this week, Ansar al-Sharia released 73 soldiers it was holding captive.
He said he wasn't convinced that attacking groups like Ansar al-Sharia with force was the most effective way to stamp out their threat.
Last month, a series of suicide attacks and armed assaults by Ansar al-Sharia left more than 100 people dead, most of them soldiers.
The administration knew within a matter of hours that this was a planned terrorist attack by the al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group Ansar al-Sharia.
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Ansar al-Sharia is a separate Islamist militia allied with al Qaeda.
Seifallah Ben Hassine of the Ansar al-Sharia group, a former denizen of Ben Ali's jails, has gone into hiding after being linked to the embassy attack.
Some of those involved claimed to have freed at least 20 captives held inside, and expressed their intent to assume control over other Ansar al-Sharia buildings.
Another, received just two hours into the raid, advised White House and State Department officials that an Islamic militant group called Ansar al-Sharia had taken credit.
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Members of Ansar al-Sharia launched the raid near Lawdar, a town in Abyan province about 120km (75 miles) north-west of the port city of Aden, at dawn.
Two should go quietly but Ansar al-Sharia is another matter.
Army General Naji al-Shuaibi said the citizens, whom he referred to as "revolutionaries of the February 17 uprising, " later asked that the Ansar al-Sharia headquarters be handed over to the Libyan army.
The president of Libya's parliament, Mohammed al-Magarief, asserted that U.S. intelligence had intercepted communications between elements of AQIM and Ansar al-Sharia, a group widely blamed for playing a part in the attack.
"The interior ministry has decided to ban the gathering of Ansar al-Sharia, which has shown disdain for state institutions, incited violence against them and poses a threat to public security, " a statement said.
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On Thursday, Libyan Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur said eight detained in connection with that assault include members of Ansar al-Sharia, though he added that not all the attackers came from one specific group.
Why not dispatch Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose department had received real-time emails when the consulate was under attack, including one which disclosed that the al-Quaida-linked group Ansar al-Sharia had taken credit?
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The first version also includes a reference to the terrorist organization Ansar al-Sharia -- an al Qaeda-affiliated group that operates in Libya that took credit for the attack on Facebook but later denied any involvement.
There was widespread speculation that anti-national authority groups capitalized on the euphoria after the takeover of the Ansar al-Sharia headquarters and pushed protesters to move toward locations under the control of the army and the police force.
Initial reports indicated that, ahead of the consular attack, Ansar al-Sharia had organized a protest to decry an inflammatory film that mocks the Prophet Mohammed and also protest the United States, where the film was privately produced.
Ansar al-Sharia, or Partisans of Islamic law, was founded by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in response to the growing youth movement in Yemen, which has marginalised Salafi-jihadists who advocate the violent overthrow of the government.
Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), vice chairman of the intelligence panel of the Armed Services Committee, said that al-Harzi was a confirmed member of Ansar al-Sharia, the al-Qaida-linked terror group that took credit for the consulate attack while it was occurring.
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Ansar al-Sharia, whose name means "Partisans of Islamic law" in Arabic, was formed by AQAP in response to the growing youth movement in Yemen, which has marginalised Salafi-jihadists who advocate the violent overthrow of the government and the establishment of an Islamic state.
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