CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr: learned from sources that the U.S. aborted a plan to capture a suspect in the U.S. Consulate attack in Benghazi.
US missed opportunity to capture Ahmed Abu Khattalah. The operation was aborted because of fear of that the capture would de-stabilize the Libyan government.
Witnesses have said they saw Ahmed Abu Khattala, a commander of Ansar al-Sharia, leading the embassy attack, which Khattala denied.
News broke that American commandos captured longtime suspected al-Qaeda leader Abu Anas al-Libi during the first weekend in October 2013. US officials claimed Libya approved the capture, but Libya started calling the operation a kidnapping. After the disagreement, the US got timid about capturing Ahmed Abu Khattalah. The backlash over the second raid was feared to have the potential to bring down the government of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan.
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Atlantic Wire Libya’s Protest of U.S. Raid Jeopardizes Future Arrest of Benghazi Suspect