Libyan authorities have singled out Ahmed Abu Khattala, a leader of
the Benghazi-based Islamist group Ansar al-Shariah, as a commander in the
attack that killed the American ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens,
last month, Libyans involved in the investigation said Wednesday.
Witnesses at the scene of the attack on the
American Mission in Benghazi have said they saw Mr. Abu Khattala leading the
assault, and his personal involvement is the latest link between the attack and
his brigade, Ansar al-Shariah, a puritanical militant group that wants to
advance Islamic law in Libya.
The identity and motivation of the assailants have
become an intense point of contention in the American presidential campaign.
Republicans have sought to tie the attack to Al Qaeda to counter President
Obama’s assertion that by killing Osama bin Laden and other leaders his
administration had crippled the group; Mr. Abu Khattala and Ansar al-Shariah
share Al Qaeda’s puritanism and militancy, but operate independently and focus
only on Libya rather than on a global jihad against the West.
But Mr. Abu Khattala’s exact role, or how much of
the leadership he shared with others, is not yet clear. His leadership would
not rule out participation or encouragement by militants connected to Al Qaeda
in the Islamic Maghreb, an Algerian Islamic insurgency that adopted the name of
Bin Laden’s group a few years ago to bolster its image, but has so far avoided
attacks on Western interests.
Like the other leaders of the brigade or fighters
seen in the attack, Mr. Abu Khattala remains at large and has not yet been
questioned.
The authorities in Tripoli do not yet command an
effective army or police force, and members of the recently elected Parliament
have acknowledged with frustration that their government’s limited power has
shackled their ability to pursue the attackers.
The government typically relies on self-formed
local militias to act as law enforcement, and the Benghazi-area militias appear
reluctant to enter a potentially bloody fight against another local group, like
Ansar al-Shariah, to track down Mr. Abu Khattala.
Asked last week about Mr. Abu Khattala’s role, an
American official involved in a separate United States investigation declined
to comment on any particular suspects, but he indicated that the United States
was tracking Mr. Abu Khattala and cautioned that the leadership of the attack
might have been broader than a single man.
“Ansar al-Shariah is not only a shadowy group, it’s also quite
factionalized,” the official said. “There isn’t necessarily one overall
military commander of the group.”
It was not immediately clear if that assessment
might have changed with new information from Libyan witnesses. The New York
Times reported Tuesday that Mr. Abu Khattala was a leader of the brigade, but
withheld accounts of his specific role in the attack to protect witnesses. On Wednesday,
The Wall Street Journal reported that three witnesses had seen him during the
Sept. 11 attack on the mission and that the Libyan authorities were focused on
his role.
The Journal reported that Mr. Abu Khattala had
been seen at large in the Leithi neighborhood of Benghazi, known for a high
concentration of Islamists. But his exact whereabouts is unclear. Libyan border
security is loose, so it is possible that he will flee or has already left the
country.
Mr. Abu Khattala was a member of the Islamist
opposition under Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and was imprisoned in his notorious
Abu Salim prison. Unlike most of the other Islamist prisoners, however, Mr. Abu
Khattala never renounced violence as a means for seeking political change. He
was let out of prison only last year, along with a batch of other political
prisoners released in a futile bid by the government to appease the nascent
uprising.
Mr. Abu Khattala fought Colonel Qaddafi along with
the rest of the Libyan opposition and the current leaders of the big militias
in eastern Libya. But as those groups lined up behind the transitional
government and the democratic process, Mr. Abu Khattala and a small core of
like-minded Islamists formed Ansar al-Shariah, which now includes 100 to 200
fighters. Its name means “supporters of Islamic law,” and it opposes electoral
democracy as a substitute.
It has staged displays of armed might intended to
deter Western-style secular liberals whom it suspects of moving to liberalize
Libya, where alcohol is currently banned, polygamy is legal and a vast majority
of women wear an Islamic head covering.
But Ansar al-Shariah also guarded a local hospital
and engaged in preaching and charitable work, before popular anger at the group
for its role in the mission attack forced it to scatter and hide out of sight.
Suliman Ali Zway contributed reporting from
Tripoli, Libya, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.
This article has been revised to reflect the
following correction:
Correction: October 17, 2012
The headline with an earlier version of this
article misidentified the source of the identification of Ahmed Abu Khattala as
a commander in the attack that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. Libya
has named Mr. Abu Khattala, not the United States.
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