Ansar al-Sharia is one of the jihadist groups that sprung up in
Benghazi, Libya's second largest city. They overran the city in 2014.
Washington
accuses the group of being behind the September 11, 2012 attack on the
US consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi in which ambassador
Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed.
Ansar
al-Sharia is one of the jihadist groups that sprung up in Benghazi,
Libya's second largest city, in the chaos following the death of
dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. They overran the city in 2014.
East
Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar earlier this month launched an
offensive to oust jihadist fighters from their two remaining
strongholds in Benghazi.
In its communique Ansar al-Sharia said it had been "weakened" by the fighting.
The group lost its leader, Mohammed Azahawi, in clashes with Haftar's forces in Benghazi at the end of 2014.
Most
of its members then defected to the so-called Islamic State group.
Ansar al-Sharia later joined the Revolutionary Shura Council of
Benghazi, a local alliance of Islamist militias.
At
its zenith, Ansar al-Sharia was present in Benghazi and Derna in
eastern Syria, with offshoots in Sirte and Sabratha, western Libya.
The
organisation took over barracks and other sites abandoned by the ousted
Kadhafi forces and transformed them into training grounds for hundreds
of jihadists seeking to head to Iraq or Syria
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