FILE - This March 27, 2008, file photo, shows the Pentagon in Washington. Ali Awni al-Harzi, an Islamic State operative suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, has been killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq, the Pentagon said Monday, June 22, 2015. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File) (The Associated Press)
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon says an Islamic State operative suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, has been killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq.
Defense Department spokesman Col. Steve Warren says Ali Awni al-Harzi "operated closely" with Islamic State-associated extremists in North Africa and the Middle East. Warren says al-Harzi's death will diminish the radical group's ability to recruit North African jihadists into its fight in Syria and Iraq.
The Pentagon says al-Harzi was killed last week in Mosul, which fell to Islamic State forces a year ago.
The Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. outpost in Benghazi killed four Americans, including U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens.
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