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Libya Singles Out Islamist as a Commander in Consulate Attack

(New York Times) David D. Kirkpatrick - Libyan authorities have singled out Ahmed Abu Khattala, a leader of the Benghazi-based Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, as a commander in the attack that killed the American ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens. But his leadership would not rule out participation or encouragement by militants connected to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an Algerian Islamic insurgency. Abu Khattala was a member of the Islamist opposition under Gaddafi and was imprisoned. Unlike most of the other Islamist prisoners, however, Abu Khattala never renounced violence as means of 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.
2012-10-18 00:00:00
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