US airstrike kills Benghazi suspect

Ali Ani al-Harzi, a Tunisian terrorist suspected of being involved in the September 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi, was killed in northern Iraq by a US airstrike on June 15. Harzi had been on US intelligence officials’ radars for quite some time, and was the source of much controversy when he was released from US custody in 2013. Harzi was a high-ranking official of Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia (AAS-T), a group known to support al-Qaeda’s ideology with close ties to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and whose militants are suspected perpratrators in the Benghazi attack.

According to the State Department, Harzi served AAS-T by, “recruiting volunteers, facilitating the travel of AAS-T fighters to Syria, and smuggling weapons and explosives into Tunisia.” Soon after the Benghazi attack, Harzi began posting updates related to the attack on social media, which were reportedly what lead intelligence analysts to link the attack to AAS-T.

Harzi was arrested in Turkey on his way to Syria in October 2012, and was questioned about the Benghazi attack by December 2012 by FBI agents. However, he was released in January 2013, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton along with CIA director John Brennan assured his release was not worrisome, as US government had no unsettling evidence on Harzi. Weeks after his release, two Tunisian politicians were assassinated, and their deaths were linked to Harzi. The FBI’s lackluster investigation and interrogation of Harzi added to the controversy surrounding the Benghazi attack and the US’s questionable response to it.

On April 10, 2015, the UN’s Security Council Committee added Harzi to their Al-Qaeda Sanctions List, directly stating he, “planned and perpetrated the attack against the Consulate of the United States in Benghazi, Libya on 11 Sep. 2012.” Harzi was also on the US Treasury and State Departments’ terrorist designation lists, but neither designation mentioned his involvement with Benghazi. In relation to Harzi’s death, Colonel Steven Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, stated, “His death degrades Islamic State’s ability to integrate North African jihadists into the Syrian and Iraqi fight and removes a jihadist with long ties to international terrorism.”

Colonel Warren’s statement can only be observed as hopeful at best, however, as IS’s success in Northern Africa cannot be pinned solely on Harzi. For more than a year now, IS has taken advantage of the turmoil in post-Gaddafi Libya, gaining pledges of allegiance from various Libyan militias including the Mujahidin of Kairouan and al-Mourabitoun. General David Rodriguez, a commander for US Africa Command, explained US suspicion on IS setting up training camps in Libya with the likelihood of trainees being sent to fight in Syria. As seen in instances with IS affiliates AQAP, US airstrikes killing high level officials is not as large of a blow to group morale as it’s made to believe. US officials need to come to terms with the fact that airstrikes will not be enough to degrade terrorist organizations such as IS and focus their attention on better training and equipping of local troops if there is any hope in stopping Islamist’s success.