U.S. Charges Libyan Militia Leader in Benghazi Attack

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

Federal law enforcement authorities have filed murder charges against Ahmed Abu Khattala, a prominent militia leader in Benghazi, Libya, in connection with the attacks on a diplomatic mission there last Sept. 11 that killed the United States ambassador and three other Americans, according to senior law enforcement and United States officials.

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Bryan Denton for The New York Times

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The authorities have identified roughly a dozen others who they said they believe participated in the attacks, and have filed charges under seal against some of them, the officials said.

Despite making progress in the investigation, some F.B.I. agents who are leading it from Tripoli, the capital of Libya, have grown frustrated that there have been no arrests, the officials said. Apprehending the suspects will most likely take significant negotiations between the State Department and the Libyan government over who will try to do so and where the suspects will be tried.

It is not clear that either government knows the whereabouts of all the suspects.

“It is a very difficult environment to work in,” one United States official said. “It’s a fragile country.”

The Libyan government has only loose control over some areas of the country, including parts of Benghazi, which are run by militias.

United States officials said Tuesday that they would prefer that Libya made the arrests because they did not want to be seen as taking law enforcement action in another country. 

Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in May, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the Justice Department had made significant strides in its investigation. It is unclear, however, whether the government had filed charges at that point.

“We are at a point where we have taken steps that I would say are definitive, concrete, and we are — we will be prepared shortly, I think, to reveal all that we have done,” Mr. Holder said.

He added: “I’m satisfied with the progress that we have made in the investigation. Regardless of what happened previously, we have made very, very, very substantial progress in that investigation.”

One United States official said the F.B.I. had by then made progress in identifying some suspects. In its most expansive use of social media abroad, the F.B.I. set up a Facebook page that posted pictures of suspects in the hope of identifying them.

The charges against Mr. Khattala and the other suspects were reported on Tuesday afternoon by The Wall Street Journal and CNN. One law enforcement official said that the disclosure of the charges might hasten efforts to make arrests.

In an interview with The New York Times in October, Mr. Abu Khattala said he had arrived at the American compound in Benghazi as gunfire broke out but had played no role in the attack, in which Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens was killed. He said he had entered the compound at the end of the siege in an attempt to rescue Libyan guards who worked for the Americans and had been trapped.

Mr. Abu Khattala accused American leaders of using the Benghazi attack to play “with the emotions of the American people” in an effort to “gather votes for their elections.”