The Libyan held as the suspected ringleader of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was driven by extremist anti-Western ideology, the Washington Post reported late Tuesday.

U.S. prosecutors said in court documents filed late Tuesday that after the attacks in 2012  Ahmed Abu Khatallah, the only detainee in the case, and other armed men overran and looted the compound, then returned to a base to prepare an attack on a CIA annex nearby.

A Tunisian diplomat and a fellow embassy staffer who were abducted in Libya returned to Tunisia on a military plane early Monday after being freed by their unknown captors.

Embassy employee Mohamed ben Sheikh kidnapped in Tripoli on March 21 and diplomat Al-Aroussi Kontassi, who was seized April 17, reunited with their families at a military barracks in a suburb of Tunis early Monday.

More than 1,600 migrants were rescued by the Italian navy and coast guard this weekend, authorities said Sunday, as the annual arrivals toll crept towards a record high.

Seven boats, many of them carrying children, were intercepted in a 24-hour period between Saturday and Sunday, bringing the total number of migrants arriving on Italian shores this year to above 60,000.

A Tunisian diplomat and a fellow embassy staffer abducted in Libya earlier this year were freed by their abductors on Sunday after months in captivity, an embassy source said.

"They have been freed and should be returning to Tunisia soon," the source, who declined to be identified, told Agence France Presse, adding that the pair were in good health.

The suspected ringleader of a deadly 2012 attack on the American consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi arrived in the United States on Saturday in the custody of U.S. authorities.

Four Americans including U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens were killed on September 11, 2012 when gunmen stormed the U.S. consulate and set it on fire and a CIA outpost was also targeted, in an attack that shocked Washington and has become a highly charged political issue.

President Barack Obama hailed Libya's general election as a "milestone" Thursday and said the United States would stand by the war-scarred nation on its transition to democracy.

Libyan authorities have expressed hope that Wednesday's election, the results of which were still being tallied, will pave a way out of the turmoil that has gripped the country since the 2011 ouster of strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

The count was under way Thursday in a Libyan general election overshadowed by deadly violence in second city Benghazi, including the killing of a leading women's rights activist.

The first results were expected as early as later Thursday, organizers said, from an election the authorities hope will pave a way out of the turmoil that has gripped the country since the 2011 ouster of dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

A deadly attack on troops and low turnout Wednesday marred Libya's general election on which hopes were pinned of ending three years of turmoil since dictator Moammar Gadhafi's ouster.

At least three soldiers deployed to provide polling day security in second city Benghazi were killed in what security officials said was an attack on their convoy by Islamist militia.

More than 400 Turks were evacuated from Libya on Tuesday following threats by a rogue former rebel commander who accuses Ankara of backing his Islamist opponents, an airport official said.

The Turkish embassy chartered two aircraft to fly the 420 Turks home from Libya's third city Misrata, airport spokesman Mohamed Ismail told state news agency LANA.

The U.N. Security Council urged Libyans to ensure that their national elections  are held peacefully on Wednesday, warning that they are important to Tripoli's transition to stable democratic rule.