UN blacklists alleged Benghazi attack culprit

Published November 28, 2013
US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attack, which caused a political firestorm in the United States.  — File Photo
US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attack, which caused a political firestorm in the United States. — File Photo

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council has blacklisted an al Qaeda-affiliated militant and his network for allegedly being linked to the attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.

The council's anti-terrorism committee has listed Muhammad Jamal and his Muhammad Jamal Network for running camps in Libya to train foreign terrorists and for being ''reportedly involved in the attack on the US Mission in Benghazi'' on Sept 11, 2012, according to Australian Ambassador Gary Quinlan, the chairman of the committee.

The Security Council reviewed the work of its al Qaeda Sanctions Committee on Wednesday

US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attack, which caused a political firestorm in the United States.

Republicans in Congress have criticised the Obama administration's handling of the attack and the level of security at the diplomatic outpost.

The listing requires all nations to freeze the funds and financial assets of the person and group, block their travel, and bar any military or technical advice or materials to them.

The US State Department designated Jamal as a global terrorist in October, blocking any property Jamal or his network may have in US jurisdiction and banning American citizens from engaging in any transactions that would benefit him.

The State Department said Jamal learned how to make bombs in the late 1980s from al Qaeda in Afghanistan and formed his own network, with terrorist training camps in Egypt and Libya, after being released from an Egyptian prison in 2011.

In the 1990s, Jamal became a top military commander of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, then headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the chief of the al Qaeda network.

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