Special forces seize suspect in Benghazi US embassy attack
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A LIBYAN militant suspected in the deadly September 11 attack on Americans in Benghazi in 2012 has been captured and is in US custody.
It is the first US apprehension of an alleged perpetrator in the assault that killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Obama administration officials said Ahmed Abu Khattala, a senior leader of the Benghazi branch of the terror group Ansar al-Sharia in Libya, will be tried in a US court. He was captured by US forces on Sunday and is being held in an undisclosed location outside Libya, according to Pentagon press secretary Navy Rear Admiral John Kirby.
US President Barack Obama said the Libyan militant, captured in an operation in Libya that he authorized, will face the full weight of the American justice system.
He called the capture a testament to the painstaking efforts of US security officials and said the US had demonstrated it would do whatever it took to bring justice to those who harm Americans.
Obama said the US would continue to track down those responsible for the attack.
Stevens was the first US ambassador to be killed in the line of duty in more than 30 years.
Last year, the US filed charges against Khattala and a number of others in a sealed complaint filed in US District Court in Washington. However, until now, no one had been arrested in the attack in which militants set fire to the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi.
The Obama administration has come under intense criticism from opposition Republicans for being unable to apprehend those responsible.
According to a US official, the Libyan operation was planned over a long period of time and executed by US special operations forces. The official said the operation was conducted in conjunction with the FBI.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, political reaction formed along partisan lines that hold fast to this day.
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and others said Obama had emboldened Islamic extremists by being weak against terrorism. But the public still credited Obama with the successful strike against al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden a few months earlier in Pakistan.
The accusation that took hold was a charge that the White House misled voters by portraying the Benghazi assault as one of many protests over an anti-Muslim video made in the US, instead of a calculated terrorist attack under Obama’s watch.
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