Video: Libyans Tried to Save US Ambassador

Chris Stevens was alive when mob found him
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 17, 2012 1:55 PM CDT
Video: Libyans Tried to Save US Ambassador
Fahd al-Bakoush, a freelance videographer, 22, discusses a video he shot that shows civilians removing the body of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens from a small dark room in the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in the aftermath of the Tuesday Sept. 11, 2012, attack, during an interview with the Associated Press,...   (Mohammad Hannon)

Ambassador Chris Stevens was still breathing when Libyans stumbled across him inside a room in the American Consulate in Benghazi, cheering, "Alive, alive" and "God is great." They tried to rescue him after last week's deadly attack in the eastern Libyan city, witnesses said. A group of people gathered as several men pulled the seemingly lifeless form from the room, said freelance videographer Fahd al-Bakoush. "He was alive," he said. "No doubt. His face was blackened and he was like a paralyzed person."

Video taken by al-Bakoush and posted on YouTube shows Stevens being carried out of a dark room through a window with a raised shutter by a crowd of men. The next scene shows Stevens lying on a tile floor, with one man touching his neck to check his pulse. The video has been authenticated, and the account of the doctor who treated him meshes with that of witnesses. "We were happy to see him alive," says one. "But there was no security, no ambulances, nothing to help." The men eventually drove him to a hospital. (More Libya protests stories.)

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