President Obama called the presidents of Libya and Egypt overnight to discuss the attacks on U.S. embassies, including the one in Libya that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador. 
 
 The president may soon be dealing with another foreign crisis: There are reports that protesters in Yemen are storming the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa. 
 
 In his call with President Mohamed Magariaf of Libya, Obama thanked him "for extending his condolences for the tragic deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, and two other State Department officers in Benghazi," said a White House statement. 
 
 Obama "also expressed appreciation for the cooperation we have received from the Libyan government and people in responding to this outrageous attack, and said that the Libyan government must continue to work with us to assure the security of our personnel going forward," the White House said. 
 
 The statement added that the president "reaffirmed our support for Libya's democratic transition, a cause Ambassador Stevens believed in deeply and did so much to advance." 
 
 Mobs also attacked the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, prompting a call from Obama to Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi. 
 
 "Given recent events, and consistent with our interest in a relationship based on mutual interests and mutual respect, President Obama underscored the importance of Egypt following through on its commitment to cooperate with the United States in securing U.S. diplomatic facilities and personnel," said a White House readout. 
 
 Obama referenced the online anti-Islam film that may have triggered some of the protests. 
 
 The president said that he rejects efforts to denigrate Islam, but underscored that there is never any justification for violence against innocents and acts that endanger American personnel and facilities," said the White House readout. "President Morsi expressed his condolences for the tragic loss of American life in Libya and emphasized that Egypt would honor its obligation to ensure the safety of American personnel." 
 
 As for the deadly attack in Libya, U.S. officials are looking into the possibility of a pre-planned attack, using the anti-Islam film as cover. ||||| US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens was killed in Benghazi yesterday, according to multiple reports. 
 
 Four Americans, including Christopher Stevens, the US Ambassador to Libya, were killed in an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi Tuesday. The attackers were armed with guns and rockets and were reportedly angry about a YouTube film that made derogatory statements about Islam and its central figure, Mohammed. In a statement released to the press this morning, President Barack Obama "strongly" condemned the "outrageous attack," saying that the slain US personnel "exemplified America's commitment to freedom, justice, and partnership with nations and people around the globe, and stand in stark contrast to those who callously took their lives." 
 
 There were also protests at the US Embassy in Cairo, where Republicans seized on a weak initial statement from officials there to paint the Obama administration as soft-on-Islam (the US Ambassador to Egypt, Anne W. Patterson, is career diplomat who also served as Bush's Ambassador to Pakistan). The initial statement (which appeared before the attacks on the embassies) and a few since-deleted tweets apologized for the offending video and criticized the "continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims." Though the White House told Politico it hadn't approved the statement, GOP Presidential nominee Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama of sympathizing with the embassy attackers, saying: 
 
 I'm outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi. It's disgraceful that the Obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks. 
 
 Likewise, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus tweeted yesterday that "Obama sympathizes with attackers in Egypt. Sad and pathetic." So the official Republican response to Americans being killed abroad yesterday is that the president of the United States is on the side of the killers, so vote Romney. 
 
 Despite the persistent Republican fantasy that the United States conducts diplomacy the way that Sean Hannity used to treat Alan Colmes, it's not clear a Republican President would have reacted differently to initial reports. In 2006, when European newspapers published cartoons denigrating Islam's prophet Mohammed, the Bush administration similarly affirmed free speech rights but said that "We find them offensive, and we certainly understand why Muslims would find these images offensive."
– Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen today praised the killing of the US ambassador in Libya and called for more attacks to expel American embassies from Muslim nations. The statement, posted on Islamic militant websites, suggested al-Qaeda was trying to co-opt the wave of angry protests over the anti-Islamic movie whose trailer surfaced this week. The statement said the killing of Ambassador Chris Stevens was "the best example" for protesters. Most cities around the Muslim world reported a calm day, however, after the deadly protests spread to more than 20 countries yesterday. In Egypt, for example, police cleared out protesters who had been clashing with security forces for days near the US embassy, and they also cleared Tahrir Square. One exception to the quiet: Riot police clashed with about 200 protesters at the US consulate in Sydney, Australia. President Obama, meanwhile, said in his weekly radio address that while he respected all faiths and condemned the denigration of Islam, "there is never any justification for violence (and) there is no excuse for attacks on our embassies and consulates."