The man is the second suspect to be apprehended in the 2012 assault and will be brought to Washington to face criminal charges.
WASHINGTON — American commandos captured a suspect in the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, American officials said on Monday, bringing into custody a second man accused in the terrorist attacks that have been used by Republicans as a political spear against the Obama administration.
The man, whose name was not disclosed, was caught in Benghazi and being brought to the United States to face criminal charges, one official said. Four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, were killed in bloody assaults at a diplomatic compound and a C. I. A. base a mile away that came under heavy fire. More than a dozen people have been charged, and one is standing trial.
The team of commandos — made up of Navy SEALs and members of the F. B. I.’s Hostage Rescue Team — surprised the suspect, the official said, adding that he was unable to resist. Details about the operation were limited, but the officials said plans to apprehend him had been in the works for months as the American military waited for authorization from the White House.
The military’s Joint Special Operations Command had been watching the man closely along with others thought to have participated in the attacks. Officials said Lt. Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller, a commander of the special operations command and a former Delta Force operator, pushed hard to carry out the secret mission.
The arrest of the man shows that President Trump, who vowed during his campaign to fill the wartime prison at Guantánamo Bay with “bad dudes,” is willing to use civilian courts to prosecute terrorism suspects captured overseas. The capture lso marks a victory for F. B. I. officials, who had feared that such prosecutions would stagnate under Mr. Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Mr. Sessions has said for years that terrorism suspects should be held and prosecuted at Guantánamo Bay. Mr. Sessions has said that terrorists do not deserve the same legal rights as common criminals and that such trials were too dangerous to hold in the United States.
Earlier this year, the United States extradited a man suspected of belonging to Al Qaeda from Spain to stand trial in the United States. European allies refuse to release suspects to be sent to the prison at Guantánamo Bay, complicating Mr. Trump’s rhetoric about filling the prison but demonstrating the realities of fighting terrorism in 2017.
The F. B. I.’s Hostage Rescue Team has worked closely for years with the military’s elite units to make such arrests. In 2013, the F. B. I. team took part in an operation to arrest Ahmed Abu Khattala, who was charged in the Benghazi attack and is being tried in Federal District Court in Washington. If convicted, Mr. Khattala faces a potential sentence of life in prison.
It was not clear how the arrest of a second suspect could affect Mr. Khattala’s trial. If the suspect cooperates with the authorities but fails to implicate Mr. Khattala in the Benghazi attack, he could give testimony that could be harmful to the prosecution’s case. But he might also know something about Mr. Khattala that could aid prosecutors and strengthen their case.
To capture Mr. Khattala, an F. B. I. agent and several Delta Force operators snatched him from a beachside villa on Libya’s coast, and Navy SEALs took him to a waiting warship, where he was interrogated.
