US military action in Libya appears imminent as a result of yesterday’s killing of the American Ambassador, Chris Stevens, Information Manager Sean Smith and two other Americans during an attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi by angry Muslims protesting against a film by a US national that painted Prophet Muhammad in bad light.

Indications in this regard follow the dispatching of an elite group of Marines to Tripoli, the Libyan capital, hours after President Barack Obama vowed that the US would “work with the Libyan government to bring to justice” the killers of Ambassador Stevens and others.

A relatively small branch of the US Navy, the mission of the Marines, according to a US military website, “is primarily to conduct initial combat operations from a forward deployed platform (such as a big ass boat) and establish a beachhead from which they can operate until follow on forces arrive.”

The site explained that one of the reasons why the entire Marine Corps is considered “elite” is “because their entire organization is predominantly combat oriented. Even the support units they do have are inculcated with the idea that ‘every Marine is a rifleman first’.”

Reports reaching News Express have it that in addition to the Marines, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations) is also sending evidence teams to Libya.

Lamenting the fate of Stevens, the first US ambassador killed in the line of duty in 30 years, President Obama had said: “We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, but there is absolutely no justification for this type of senseless violence. None.”

Libya’s Interim President Mohammed el-Megarif has apologised to the US and vowed to find those behind the attack.

Trouble had started Tuesday when Muslim fundamentalists launched protests in Libya and Egypt over a yet-to-be-released movie entitled The Innocence of Muslims, which paints Prophet Muhammad as a fraud and a womaniser.

*Photo, courtesy ehow.com, shows a detachment of US Marines Elite Troops.