American teacher is shot and murdered in Libya’s Benghazi

AFP/Benghazi

An American teacher was gunned down in Libya yesterday as he took his morning jog, a week before he was to return home on holiday, officials and the school said. Ronnie Smith, a 33-year-old from Texas, had been running in the central Al Fwihet neighbourhood of the eastern city of Benghazi when he was shot, security services spokesman Ibrahim al-Sharaa said.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the killing, which comes 15 months after the US ambassador and three other Americans were killed in an attack on the US consulate in Libya’s second city.

International School Benghazi director Adel al-Mansuri said Smith, who was married and the father of a two-year-old boy, had joined the faculty as a chemistry teacher late last year. Mansuri said Smith had been set to return home next week for the year-end holidays, but it was not immediately clear whether his wife and son were with him.

The director added, without providing details, that another American teacher at the school had been taken to a secure location until he can travel home.

The State Department confirmed that a US citizen had been shot and killed in Benghazi.

“We offer our condolences to the victim’s loved ones. We are in contact with the family and are providing all appropriate consular assistance,” deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said.

Smith’s killing triggered an outpouring of emotion on social media networks.

“It is with a very heavy heart that we announce the death of Ronnie Smith... shot & killed in #Benghazi,” tweeted the Libyan Youth Movement.

“Ronnie was living and teaching in #Benghazi on his own accord, he told friends ‘If I were to be killed, I will die for Education.’”

Another Benghazi-based Twitter user identified as Taqwa Embasher posted: “Smith was a kindhearted, generous person. I was a target of his kindness and generosity” RIP my best teacher&friend.”

International School Benghazi is one of the few foreign schools still operating in Libya, with most having shut down last year and earlier this year because of the growing lack of security.

In other violence yesterday in the increasingly lawless eastern city, two Libyan soldiers were shot dead in separate incidents, the latest of dozens of security personnel to be gunned down in recent weeks, security officials said.  A third soldier, who was attached to military intelligence, died when a bomb placed under his vehicle blew up, a security official said.

Farther east, in the Islamist bastion of Derna, residents yesterday staged new demonstrations against what they say is anarchy in the city and to demand a police and army presence.