WASHINGTON — The capture of an alleged leader of the deadly 2012 attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya, gave U.S. officials a rare moment of good news. Now, they are preparing to try the captured Libyan in the U.S. court system and pledging to double down on catching others responsible for the deaths of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in the attacks.

U.S. officials said Ahmed Abu Khattala was being held on the USS New York, a Navy amphibious transport dock ship in the Mediterranean Sea.

Abu Khattala, who was captured Sunday on the outskirts of Benghazi by U.S. Special Forces, was headed to the United States to face what President Barack Obama called “the full weight of the American justice system.”

The Benghazi attacks, and the Obama administration’s conduct in the aftermath, have long been a source of festering political discord.

And some Republicans on Capitol Hill were quick to voice skepticism about the administration’s plans to try Abu Khattala like a civilian.