[1] In his trial in U.S. federal court in 2017, Abu Khattala was acquitted of 14 charges, including murder, but convicted of four lesser terrorism-related crimes.

After briefly working as a car mechanic, Khattala, spent most of his adult life in Abu Salim prison in Tripoli, jailed by the government of Muammar Gaddafi for his Islamic extremism.

[2][1] During the 2011 Libyan civil war, he formed his own militia of "perhaps two dozen fighters", naming it Obayduh bin Jarrah for an early Islamic general.

[8] On the weekend of June 14–15, 2014, U.S. Delta Force special operations personnel captured him in a covert mission (codenamed "Greenbrier River") in Libya, using an informant to lure him to an isolated villa by the coastline.

[9][10][11][12] According to court records, Khattala was armed with a handgun and violently resisted capture, before he was handcuffed, blindfolded, gagged, and earmuffed.

[16] Abu Khattala, through his attorneys, made a motion asking for a court order to return him to Libya and forgo the death penalty.

[18] On November 28, 2017, a jury in Washington acquitted Abu Khattala of 14 of the 18 charges he faced after deliberating for five days following the seven-week trial.

He was convicted of four lesser charges, including conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism, maliciously destroying and injuring dwellings and property as well as using and carrying a semi-automatic weapon during a crime of violence.