WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder has decided to cut short a trip to the Middle East and return to Washington to oversee an FBI probe of the deadly attack on the US consulate in Libya, a spokesman said Friday.
Holder was scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia and Turkey in addition to Qatar where he announced Thursday that the FBI had opened an investigation into the deaths of US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi.
"He chose to come back to Washington to manage this investigation," said Dean Boyd, a Justice Ministry spokesman.
"Among its many responsibilities, the FBI is charged with investigating threats to, or attacks against US citizens or US interests abroad," Boyd said.
"When conducting such investigations, the FBI coordinates closely with the Justice Department, the Department of State, and the appropriate government partners in the host nation," he said.
Boyd, however, would not go into details about the investigation or say whether it extends to the making of an anti-Muslim film that ignited the violent protests in Libya, Egypt and other countries in the region.
An Egyptian Coptic Christian living in California, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, claims to have produced the film ridiculing the Prophet Mohammed.
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