AP, CBS (USA)
CAIRO – Egyptian official sources say a militant suspected of involvement in the deadly U.S. consulate attack in Benghazi was killed in clashes in Cairo.
An Egyptian interior ministry source told CBS News on Thursday that the suspect in Egypt, known only by his first name, Hazem, was killed after neighbors summoned police about a suspicious resident. Security forces came in and exchanged fire with the man, before he blew himself up.
The news comes a day after AP reported charges filed against a Tunisian man who was arrested in Turkey this month with reported links to the same attack last month that killed four U.S. embassy employees.
Suspect Ali Harzi was repatriated on Oct. 11 by authorities in Turkey and was charged this week with “membership of a terrorist organization in a time of peace in another country.”
Although Harzi is not is not considered to be one of the ring leaders of the Benghazi attack, AP reports that his court dossier links him to the Sep. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate that left Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead.
The communication fiasco surrounding the Benghazi killings remains a thorn in President Obama’s reelection campaign. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cautioned that a newly released series of e-mails sent by the State Department during the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya was “not in and of itself evidence” that the administration had assessed the assault as a terrorist attack from the beginning, despite describing it as a protest gone awry five days later.
The account of the Benghazi tragedy has become a campaign target for Republican challenger Mitt Romney and GOP lawmakers, who accuse the White House of misleading Americans about the nature of the attack.
