Washington:
The US government says the Libyan militant taken into American custody in the Benghazi attacks was motivated by his extremist ideology.
According to a court filing Tuesday night, Ahmed Abu Khattala was a commander of an extremist brigade that was absorbed into Ansar al-Shariah after the recent Libyan revolution.
The brigade is an Islamic extremist militia in Libya that holds anti-Western views and advocates the establishment of Shariah law in Libya.
The State Department designated Ansar al-Shariah in Benghazi a foreign terrorist organization in January.
Abu Khattala is to appear at a detention hearing Wednesday before a magistrate judge in US District Court for the District of Columbia.