Libya says ‘new elements’ in killing of U.S. ambassador

Libya’s internationally recognized parliament said Tuesday it has uncovered “new elements” behind the 2012 assassination of the U.S. ambassador when the American consulate was stormed in eastern city Benghazi.

“I have been tasked today with leading a team of inquiry,” Tareq Saqar al-Jeruchi, deputy head of the parliament’s security and defense committee, told AFP.

He said the team had “new elements on the real perpetrators of the attack” and would work closely with the FBI and Congressional commissions of inquiry, although he did not elaborate on the identities of the assailants.

A Libyan parliamentary delegation is to travel to the United States for consultations with members of Congress, Jeruchi said.

Christopher Stevens, the ambassador, and three other Americans were killed in the September 11, 2012 attack on the consulate that was said at the time to be the work of jihadist group Ansar al-Sharia, which Washington has branded a “terrorist” organization.

U.S. special forces seized a Libyan national, Ahmed Abu Khattala, as a chief suspect in a 2014 raid near Benghazi and handed him over to American judicial authorities.

Libya has been run by two governments and two parliaments since August, when an Islamist-backed militia alliance overran the capital Tripoli.

The government recognized by the international community fled to the country’s far east and set up in the city of Tobruk.