TRIPOLI: Libya condemned the United States yesterday for snatching a man suspected of masterminding the deadly 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, describing the arrest as a violation of Libyan sovereignty. US President Barack Obama authorised Sunday’s operation in which US special forces captured Ahmed Abu Khatallah in Libya for transfer to the United States. In the first official reaction from Tripoli, Justice Minister Saleh Al Marghani said Khatallah should be returned to Libya and tried there. “We had no prior notification,” Marghani told a news conference. “We expect the world to help us with security. We expected the United States to help us, but we did not expect the United States to upset the political scene.” He said Khatallah had been wanted by Libyan authorities for questioning but they had been unable to arrest him due to the security situation. Diplomats say Libya has done next to nothing to make arrests over the 2012 consulate attack in which four Americans died, as the government has little sway in Libya’s second-largest city. Libyan foreign ministry spokesman Said al Saoud said: “This attack on Libyan sovereignty happened at a time when Benghazi is suffering from many problems.” He asked that Khatallah receive a fair trial.
Iraqi Kurds form government
ARBIL: Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region formed a new government yesterday after months of wrangling, with premier Nechirvan Barzani using the occasion to call for defending disputed northern territory. “Today we announce the formation of the government in complicated circumstances,” said Barzani, the nephew of the region’s president. The division of ministries was not immediately clear, but the government includes the Goran movement, which had been in opposition. Previously, the government was formed by the historic duopoly of Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of ailing Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Negotiations have run since regional parliamentary polls in September, as top parties vied for posts. Barzani also said that: “As we needed (Kurdish unity) in the year 2003 to protect the gains of our people, today we need the same stance to protect the areas of Kurdistan outside the administration of the region.”
12 Mursi backers sentenced to death
CAIRO: An Egyptian court sentenced 12 supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi to death yesterday on charges connected to the fatal shooting of a police general last year. Eight of them, including the man convicted of firing the fatal bullet, are in custody, while the other four are on the run and were tried in absentia. The officer was killed during a police raid on an Islamist stronghold in the capital on September 19, part of bloody crackdown in the wake of the army’s overthrow of Mursi in July. The accused were also charged with “membership of a jihadist organisation” and attempted murder of police while resisting the raid. In all, 23 defendants stood trial, 12 of them in custody.
Agencies
