ANKARA
Turkey's chief Muslim cleric has defied an attack on the American consulate in Benghazi which killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, saying that violence cannot be justified on any Islamic basis.
"It is impossible to explain such acts of violence on any humanitarian or Islamic grounds," Mehmet Gormez, head of the Religious Affairs, told the Anadolu Agency on Thursday.
The attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission on Tuesday night killed two U.S. diplomats including the country's ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, along with two State Department security officers.
The Benghazi consulate was among U.S. diplomatic missions targeted in protests erupted after the online release of an anti-Islam film which mocked and degraded the Holy Prophet Muhammad.
"And in the same manner, it is impossible to evaluate such mean and provocative productions or operations within the freedom of expression," Gormez added.
The film "Innocence of Muslims" sparked angry riots also in Egypt where protesters scaled walls of U.S. Embassy in Cairo on Wednesday.
Earlier today, protestors stormed the US embassy compound in Yemen's capital, Sana'a, burning the American flag.
