EXCLUSIVE: A suspected terrorist linked to the 2012 Benghazi terror attack that killed four Americans has been captured inside Libya by U.S. forces and currently is en route to the United States, Fox News has learned.
Sources told Fox News that the suspect, Ansar al-Sharia commander Ahmed Abu Khattala, was captured Sunday during a joint U.S. military and law enforcement operation, and will face prosecution in the United States.
President Obama signed off on the mission on Friday night, Fox News is told. Khattala was captured south of Benghazi by U.S. special operators and is on his way to the U.S. aboard a Navy ship.
Khattala was long thought to be one of the ringleaders of the deadly attack, in which U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans died. He had openly granted media interviews since the 2012 attack, but until now evaded capture.
The capture marks the first time the United States has caught one of the suspects in the 2012 assault.
"He didn't know what hit him," one source told Fox News of the capture. According to sources, there was no firefight -- a small Special Forces team with one FBI agent took part in the mission.
Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby confirmed the capture in a brief statement late Tuesday morning, calling Khattala a "key figure in the attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi."
Kirby said: "There were no civilian casualties related to this operation, and all U.S. personnel involved in the operation have safely departed Libya."
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney called the development an "important milestone."
The administration has faced sustained criticism from some in Congress and the families of the victims over the fact that no one had been brought to justice since that day in 2012.
State Department official Sean Smith, and CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were also killed during the attack.
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