WASHINGTON, Oct 16: The United States plans to help Libya build a commando force to fight extremists like those that staged the deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, officials said Tuesday.

President Barack Obama’s administration is seeking congressional approval for $6.2 million in Pentagon funds and $1.6 million from the State Department’s budget for the initiative, according to documents from each department.

Plans to train a Libyan security force were already in the works before dozens of heavily-armed militants laid siege to the American mission in Benghazi last month, killing the ambassador and three US staff.

“It was marching down the path to being approved prior to the Benghazi attack. It was already before Congress,” a defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

The initiative is designed to “train and equip Libya Special Operations Forces to counter and defeat terrorist and violent extremist organizations,” said an August 24 Pentagon document.

The funds are being shifted from other projects in the Defense and State department budgets, officials said.

The planned Libya commando force would receive training “to conduct special operations missions, including counterterrorism operations to fight Al-Qaeda and its affiliates,” according to a State Department document.—AFP