Benghazi assault suspect arrested 14 years after ambush on US compound killed 4 Americans | EUROtoday

A suspect within the 2012 assault on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, that killed 4 Americans has been taken into custody.

Zubayr Al-Bakoush was arrested and landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland at 3 a.m. Friday.

“We have never stopped seeking justice for that crime against our nation,” Attorney General Pam Bondi stated at a information convention hours later.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro stated an eight-count indictment charged Al-Bakoush with crimes together with the murders of Ambassador Chris Stevens and State Department worker Sean Smith. It was unclear if Al-Bakoush had an legal professional representing him.

The 2012 assault on the U.S. compound instantly emerged as a divisive political problem as Republicans challenged President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on safety on the facility, the navy response to the violence and the administration’s altering narrative about who was accountable and why.

A last report by a Republican-led congressional panel faulted the Obama administration for safety deficiencies on the Libyan outpost and a gradual response to the assaults. The report, nevertheless, discovered no wrongdoing by Clinton.

Clinton dismissed the report as an echo of earlier probes with no new discoveries, saying it was “time to move on.” Other Democrats denounced the Republicans’ report as “a conspiracy idea on steroids.”

On the night time of Sept. 11, 2012, U.S. officers have stated, no less than 20 militants armed with AK-47s and grenade launchers breached the gate of the consulate compound and set buildings on fireplace.

The fireplace led to the deaths of Stevens and Smith. Other State Department personnel escaped to a close-by U.S. facility generally known as the annex.

A big group assembled for an assault on the annex. That assault, together with a precision mortar barrage, resulted within the deaths of safety officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.

A Libyan militant suspected of being a mastermind of the assaults, Ahmed Abu Khattala, was captured by U.S. particular forces in 2014 and was dropped at Washington for prosecution. He was convicted and is serving a jail sentence. His attorneys argued that the proof was inconclusive and that he was singled out due to his ultra-conservative Muslim beliefs.