The attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi may have been part of a broader campaign to drive the US and western presence — and particularly a growing CIA contingent — out of eastern Libya, two military sources told Fox News.
The Sept. 11 attack was preceded by hundreds of security incidents in Libya over the past year. Several of them involved western targets in the Benghazi area, which could indicate a pattern.
The attack on the US Consulate in June 6 with an improvised explosive device, planted in the ledge of the perimeter wall, was described as a probing attack to measure the response. This incident, coupled with attacks on the International Red Cross and an RPG attack on the British ambassador’s convoy — after which the British withdrew — suggest a pattern to drive western influence from the region.
Further, it fits with a broader effort by the al Qaeda affiliate and the militant group Ansar al-Sharia to establish an Islamic state in eastern Libya. Libyan authorities are identifying Ansar al-Sharia leader Ahmed Abu Khattala as the commander of the attack, though Fox News was told the US intelligence community is not going quite that far. Rather, Khattala is on the short list of suspects and was described as “one to watch.”
The Libyans are citing eyewitness accounts that Khattala was at the scene in Benghazi, leading the assault. Khattala is considered a hardcore Islamist who was imprisoned under Moammar Khadafy.
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