Ahmed Abu Khattala

Ahmed Abu Khattala (born 1971~) is an Islamist militia commander in Libya. He is suspected of participating in the 2012 Benghazi attack on the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, in which the American Ambassador and two other US diplomats were killed. Abu Khattala denies killing the diplomats.

Abu Khattala spent most of his adult life in Abu Salim prison in Tripoli, jailed by the Qaddafi government for his Islamist views. During the civil war against Qaddafi in Libya, he formed his own militia of "perhaps two dozen fighters", naming it Obeida Ibn Al Jarra for an early Islamic general. He later became involved in Ansar al-Shariah, a "group of as many as 200 militants" who, had broken away from the other militias in 2012 in protest of those militia's support for parliamentary elections in Libya. He opposes American involvement in Libya and in interviews with the New York Times he stated that “the enmity between the American government and the peoples of the world is an old case.” In regards to the role of the air campaign of NATO that toppled Colonel Qaddafi, he believes that if NATO had not intervened, “God would have helped us.” He also believes that, “We know the United States was working with both sides” and considering “splitting up" Libya.