By SULIMAN ALI ZWAY and KAREEM FAHIM
Published: December 5, 2013
THE NEW YORK TIMES

BENGHAZI, Libya — Gunmen on Thursday shot and killed a United States citizen who had been working as a teacher in an English-language school here, according to Libyan security officials and residents of the neighborhood where the attack took place.

The man, who residents said had worked at the International School in Benghazi, was out jogging in the upscale Fuwayhat neighborhood when he was attacked. One person who claimed to have witnessed the shooting said the gunmen had been driving a black jeep.

A security official, speaking on Libyan television after the shooting, said the authorities had not determined the motive behind the attack. “The assassination of the American teacher is a continuation of a series of assassinations that the city is going through,” the official said.

Benghazi, the birthplace of the uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi three years ago, has been troubled by assassinations and militia violence ever since and was the site last year of the attack on the American diplomatic compound that killed the United States ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

In a photograph circulating on social media that purported to show the man’s body, he was face down, wearing running gear and earphones, with what appeared to blood pooling at his side. The authenticity of the photograph could not immediately be confirmed.

Suliman Ali Zway reported from Benghazi, Libya, and Kareem Fahim from Cairo.