| 2014 American raid in Libya | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of U.S. retaliation for theBenghazi attack,Insurgency in the Maghreb | |||||||
 Ahmed Abu Khattala photographed after being detained by U.S. Forces | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United States | Abu Khattala's Group[1] | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Barack Obama | Ahmed Abu Khattala | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Delta Force troops FBI agents | 1 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None | 1 captured | ||||||
The2014 American raid in Libya refers to the capture ofAhmed Abu Khattala by U.S. troops and law enforcement agents during a late night raid inLibya. The raid was carried out on a coastal villa and seized Khattala before bringing him aboard a U.S. warship to be brought to the United States for legal proceedings.
Ahmed Abu Khattala, a militia leader and former prisoner under theGaddafi regime, was charged in a sealed indictment in August 2013 for his role in theattack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi which killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador,J. Christopher Stevens. In 2013,Abu Anas al-Libi, a Libyan militant wanted for his role in the1998 United States embassy bombings was seized inTripoli by U.S. troops.[3]
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On the night of 14–15 June 2014, Abu Khattala was lured by an informant to an isolated coastal villa in Libya where he was seized by Delta Force operators and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents. According to court records, Abu Khattala was armed with a handgun, violently resisted capture, and was wounded during the capture, requiring medical treatment. He was handcuffed, blindfolded, gagged, and earmuffed before being transported to theUSS New York which transported him toWashington, D.C.[4][5][6]
Abu Khattala was convicted to a 22-year prison sentence on four terrorism-related charges in November 2017.[7]
His sentence was overturned in July 2022 by theD.C. Circuit Court of Appeals who ruled that a 22-year sentence was too short given the gravity of Khattala's crimes and the vital need to deter such crimes.[8] On September 26, 2024, Khattala was resentenced to 28 years in prison, despite federal prosecutors seeking at least 60 years to life.[9] The new sentence consists of eighteen years for destroying a federal building, to be served concurrently with fifteen years for the crimes of conspiracy to and providing material support and resources to terrorists, and an additional ten years for carrying a semiautomatic assault weapon during a crime of violence.[9]
Abu Khattala told me that, after Qaddafi's fall, the group had stopped operating under the name of Abu Ubaida bin Jarrah, but it still existed as his own network—"It was there before the revolution, and it is there now"—but he refused to give further details or its new name.
After months of planning, Delta Force commandos along with FBI agents captured the man suspected in the Benghazi consulate attack late Sunday night on a desolate stretch of desert highway just outside Benghazi, U.S. sources tell NBC News.