Many Libyan figures have begun looking over their shoulders after their names were cited in a US indictment accusing them of involvement in the 2012 attack on the US consulate compound in the eastern city of Benghazi, which killed US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
Statements by a former Central Intelligence Agency official suggest Washington is determined to widen the net to arrest all suspects said to have been involved in what it describes as a “terrorist attack.”
The campaign has not been limited to those previously detained, including Zubayar al-Bakoush.
Libyan rights activists said members of the Joint Force, led by Omar Boughdada, arrested Abrik Mazek al-Zawi, a member of the Ajdabiya Shura Council known as “Abrik al-Masriya,” in the Tamina area of Misrata.
The interim Government of National Unity, headed by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, did not comment on the incident. Witnesses said an “armed security force abducted him.”
Al-Zawi, born in 1978, lived in the Al-Fateh district of Ajdabiya in eastern Libya. He worked in the housing and utilities sector and had previously served on the Ajdabiya Shura Council.
Over the past two days, US authorities published photographs of 29 Libyans extracted from surveillance footage taken during the storming of the US diplomatic compound and a CIA annex in Benghazi. They called on Libyans to provide information about the individuals, a day after announcing the arrest of al-Bakoush, who is accused of taking part in the 2012 assault.
Stevens was killed in the Sept. 11, 2012, attack along with US State Department employee Sean Smith and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.
Al-Bakoush’s wife, Basma al-Fakhri, previously said that a heavily armed force identifying itself as belonging to the Internal Security Agency stormed their home earlier this month and took her husband away.
She said she went to the agency’s headquarters the next day to deliver medicine and clothes, only to receive an official statement denying any link to the arrest.
In addition to al-Bakoush and al-Zawi, US authorities previously took custody of Abu Anas al-Libi in 2013, Ahmed Abu Khattala in 2014, and Abu Agila Masud in 2022.
Abu Anas al-Libi was tried on charges linked to the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and died in prison in 2015. Abu Khattala was convicted in the Benghazi compound attack case and is serving a prison sentence.
Abu Agila Masud has been appearing before a federal court in Washington since being handed over by the Government of National Unity in early December 2022, on suspicion of involvement in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Al-Bakoush faces eight criminal charges, according to the US Justice Department, including providing material support and resources to terrorist organizations, resulting in the deaths of four Americans. The indictment says he took part in the ground assault as part of the armed group that breached the compound’s entrance.
Since the suspects’ photos were circulated, Sarah Adams, a former CIA officer and national security expert, has weighed in on the crisis.
Writing on her account on X, she spoke of empowering individuals linked to extremist groups to hold official positions, and alleged that two prominent suspects in planning the attack later became ambassadors, giving them official cover and broad international mobility.
She also alleged the presence of “sleeper elements” inside the United States benefiting from transnational organizational frameworks.
Relations between Washington and Tripoli appear “to be fine” at present. Massad Boulos, a senior adviser to the US president, visited the Libyan capital twice in recent weeks.
Libyan political analyst Osama al-Shahoumi said reopening the Benghazi consulate attack file “did not come out of nowhere.”
Speaking to Libyan TV on Thursday evening, he said, “There is a long list of names that have not been held accountable, and the information has been available for years.”
Al-Shahoumi added that when he asked Adams whether new indictments could be unveiled in the future, as in al-Bakoush’s case, she said she hoped so, “because we want to remove more senior terrorists from the battlefield.”
