Libya demands explanation from US over 'kidnapping'
A suspected Libyan al Qaida figure captured by US
special forces in a dramatic operation in Tripoli was living freely in his
homeland for the past two years, after a trajectory that took him to Sudan,
Afghanistan and Iran, where he had been detained for years, his family has said.
The Libyan government bristled at the raid, asking Washington to explain the “kidnapping”.
The swift Delta Force operation in the streets of the Libyan capital that seized the militant known as Abu Anas al-Libi was one of two assaults Saturday that showed an American determination to move directly against terror suspects - even in two nations mired in chaos where the US has suffered deadly humiliations in the past.
Hours before the Libya raid, a Navy Seal team swam ashore in the East African nation of Somalia and engaged in a fierce firefight, though it did not capture its target, a leading militant in the al Qaida-linked group that carried out the recent Kenyan mall siege.
“We hope that this makes clear that the United States of America will never stop in the effort to hold those accountable who conduct acts of terror,” US secretary of state John Kerry said today at an economic summit in Indonesia. “Members of al Qaida and other terrorist organisations literally can run but they can’t hide.”
Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Abu Anas al-Libi, is accused by the US of involvement in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, which killed more than 220 people. He has been on the FBI’s most wanted terrorists list since it was introduced shortly after the September 11 2001 attack, with a five million US dollar (£3.1 million) bounty on his head.
US officials depicted his capture as a significant blow against al Qaida, which has lost a string of key figures, including leader Osama bin Laden, killed in a 2011 raid in Pakistan.
But it was unclear whether the 49-year-old al-Libi had a major role in the terror organisation – his alleged role in the 1998 attack was to scout one of the targeted embassies – and there was no immediate word that he had been involved in militant activities in Libya. His family and former associates denied he was ever a member of al Qaida and said he had not been engaged in any activities since coming home in 2011.
But the raid signalled a US readiness to take action against militants in Libya, where al Qaida and other armed Islamic groups have gained an increasingly powerful foothold since the 2011 ouster and killing of dictator Muammar Gaddafi and have set up tied with a belt of radical groups across North Africa and Egypt.
Libya’s central government remains weak, and armed militias – many of them made up of Islamic militants – hold sway in many places around the country, including in parts of the capital. Amid the turmoil, Libyan authorities have been unable to move against militants, including those behind the September 11, 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, in which the US ambassador and three other Americans were killed. Libyan security officials themselves are regularly targeted by gunmen. The latest victim, a military colonel, was gunned down in Benghazi today.
Several dozen members of the Islamic group Ansar al-Sharia, which has links to militias, today protested in Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city, denouncing al-Libi’s abduction and criticising the government. “Where are the men of Tripoli while this is happening?” they chanted, waving black Islamist flags.
Al-Libi’s capture was a bold strike in the Libyan capital. He had just parked his car outside his Tripoli home, returning from dawn prayers yesterday, when 10 commandos in multiple vehicles surrounded him, his brother Nabih al-Ruqai told the Associated Press. They smashed his car’s window and seized his gun before grabbing al-Libi and fleeing.
He was swiftly spirited out of the country. US Defence Department spokesman George Little said he was being held “in a secure location outside of Libya”. He did not elaborate further.
In a statement, the Libyan government said it asked the US for “clarifications” about what it called the “kidnapping”, underlining that its citizens should be tried in Libyan courts if accused of a crime. It said it hoped its “strategic partnership” with Washington would not be damaged by the incident.
Still, the relatively soft-toned statement underlined the predicament of the Libyan government. It is criticised by opponents at home over its ties with Washington, but it is also reliant on security co-operation with the Americans.
According to the federal indictment of al-Libi in a New York court, American prosecutors say he helped the African embassy bombings by scouting and photographing the embassy in Nairobi in 1993. Al-Libi was a computer expert who studied electronic and nuclear engineering at Tripoli University.
Al-Libi’s son Abdullah al-Ruqai told The Associated Press his father was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an Islamic militant group that waged a campaign of violence against Gaddafi’s regime in the 1990s. Many of the group’s members, including al-Libi, were forced to flee the country at the time. A faction of the group allied with al Qaida, although others in the group refused to.
Al-Libi is believed to have spent time in Sudan in the 1990s, when bin Laden was based there. In 1995, al-Libi later turned up in Britain, where he was granted political asylum under unclear circumstances and lived in Manchester. He was arrested by Scotland Yard in 1999, but released because of lack of evidence and later fled Britain.
His son said the family then went to Afghanistan, where they spent a year and a half until they fled into Iran, where they were held in custody for seven years. He did not elaborate, but Iran jailed a number of al Qaida-linked figures who fled Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led invasion of that country.
The family returned to Tripoli in 2010 under a rehabilitation program for Islamic militants run by Gaddafi’s son, and al-Libi himself returned in August 2011, amid the uprising that toppled Gaddafi. Since then, al-Libi was not involved with any groups.
“He would go from the house to the mosque, and from the mosque to the house,” Al Libi’s son said, adding his father had hired a lawyer and was trying to clear his name in connection to the 1998 embassy attacks.
In the earlier raid Saturday, the Navy Seal team targeted a figure from the al Qaida-linked terrorist group al-Shabab. After landing on shore, the team targeted a beachside house in the town of Barawe. The team ran into fiercer resistance than expected, and after a 15 minutes to 20 minute firefight in which they inflicted some casualties on the fighters, the unit’s leader decided to abort the mission and the Americans swam away, US officials said.
The assault was carried out by members of Seal Team Six, the same unit that killed Bin Laden in his Pakistan hideout in 2011, one senior US military official said.
Mr Little confirmed that US military personnel were involved in a counter-terrorism operation against a known al-Shabab terrorist in Somalia, but did not provide details.
The leader of al-Shabab, Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, also known as Ahmed Godane, claimed responsibility for the mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya, a four-day terrorist siege that began September 21 and killed at least 67 people. A Somali intelligence official said the al-Shabab leader was the US target.
The raid in Somalia came 20 years after the Black Hawk Down battle in Mogadishu, when a mission to capture Somali warlords in the capital went awry after militiamen shot down two US helicopters. Eighteen US soldiers died in the battle, which marked the beginning of the end of that US military mission to try to bring stability to the nation.
Since then, US military intervention has been limited to missile attacks and lightning operations by special forces.
The Libyan government bristled at the raid, asking Washington to explain the “kidnapping”.
The swift Delta Force operation in the streets of the Libyan capital that seized the militant known as Abu Anas al-Libi was one of two assaults Saturday that showed an American determination to move directly against terror suspects - even in two nations mired in chaos where the US has suffered deadly humiliations in the past.
Hours before the Libya raid, a Navy Seal team swam ashore in the East African nation of Somalia and engaged in a fierce firefight, though it did not capture its target, a leading militant in the al Qaida-linked group that carried out the recent Kenyan mall siege.
“We hope that this makes clear that the United States of America will never stop in the effort to hold those accountable who conduct acts of terror,” US secretary of state John Kerry said today at an economic summit in Indonesia. “Members of al Qaida and other terrorist organisations literally can run but they can’t hide.”
Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Abu Anas al-Libi, is accused by the US of involvement in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, which killed more than 220 people. He has been on the FBI’s most wanted terrorists list since it was introduced shortly after the September 11 2001 attack, with a five million US dollar (£3.1 million) bounty on his head.
US officials depicted his capture as a significant blow against al Qaida, which has lost a string of key figures, including leader Osama bin Laden, killed in a 2011 raid in Pakistan.
But it was unclear whether the 49-year-old al-Libi had a major role in the terror organisation – his alleged role in the 1998 attack was to scout one of the targeted embassies – and there was no immediate word that he had been involved in militant activities in Libya. His family and former associates denied he was ever a member of al Qaida and said he had not been engaged in any activities since coming home in 2011.
But the raid signalled a US readiness to take action against militants in Libya, where al Qaida and other armed Islamic groups have gained an increasingly powerful foothold since the 2011 ouster and killing of dictator Muammar Gaddafi and have set up tied with a belt of radical groups across North Africa and Egypt.
Libya’s central government remains weak, and armed militias – many of them made up of Islamic militants – hold sway in many places around the country, including in parts of the capital. Amid the turmoil, Libyan authorities have been unable to move against militants, including those behind the September 11, 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, in which the US ambassador and three other Americans were killed. Libyan security officials themselves are regularly targeted by gunmen. The latest victim, a military colonel, was gunned down in Benghazi today.
Several dozen members of the Islamic group Ansar al-Sharia, which has links to militias, today protested in Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city, denouncing al-Libi’s abduction and criticising the government. “Where are the men of Tripoli while this is happening?” they chanted, waving black Islamist flags.
Al-Libi’s capture was a bold strike in the Libyan capital. He had just parked his car outside his Tripoli home, returning from dawn prayers yesterday, when 10 commandos in multiple vehicles surrounded him, his brother Nabih al-Ruqai told the Associated Press. They smashed his car’s window and seized his gun before grabbing al-Libi and fleeing.
He was swiftly spirited out of the country. US Defence Department spokesman George Little said he was being held “in a secure location outside of Libya”. He did not elaborate further.
In a statement, the Libyan government said it asked the US for “clarifications” about what it called the “kidnapping”, underlining that its citizens should be tried in Libyan courts if accused of a crime. It said it hoped its “strategic partnership” with Washington would not be damaged by the incident.
Still, the relatively soft-toned statement underlined the predicament of the Libyan government. It is criticised by opponents at home over its ties with Washington, but it is also reliant on security co-operation with the Americans.
According to the federal indictment of al-Libi in a New York court, American prosecutors say he helped the African embassy bombings by scouting and photographing the embassy in Nairobi in 1993. Al-Libi was a computer expert who studied electronic and nuclear engineering at Tripoli University.
Al-Libi’s son Abdullah al-Ruqai told The Associated Press his father was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an Islamic militant group that waged a campaign of violence against Gaddafi’s regime in the 1990s. Many of the group’s members, including al-Libi, were forced to flee the country at the time. A faction of the group allied with al Qaida, although others in the group refused to.
Al-Libi is believed to have spent time in Sudan in the 1990s, when bin Laden was based there. In 1995, al-Libi later turned up in Britain, where he was granted political asylum under unclear circumstances and lived in Manchester. He was arrested by Scotland Yard in 1999, but released because of lack of evidence and later fled Britain.
His son said the family then went to Afghanistan, where they spent a year and a half until they fled into Iran, where they were held in custody for seven years. He did not elaborate, but Iran jailed a number of al Qaida-linked figures who fled Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led invasion of that country.
The family returned to Tripoli in 2010 under a rehabilitation program for Islamic militants run by Gaddafi’s son, and al-Libi himself returned in August 2011, amid the uprising that toppled Gaddafi. Since then, al-Libi was not involved with any groups.
“He would go from the house to the mosque, and from the mosque to the house,” Al Libi’s son said, adding his father had hired a lawyer and was trying to clear his name in connection to the 1998 embassy attacks.
In the earlier raid Saturday, the Navy Seal team targeted a figure from the al Qaida-linked terrorist group al-Shabab. After landing on shore, the team targeted a beachside house in the town of Barawe. The team ran into fiercer resistance than expected, and after a 15 minutes to 20 minute firefight in which they inflicted some casualties on the fighters, the unit’s leader decided to abort the mission and the Americans swam away, US officials said.
The assault was carried out by members of Seal Team Six, the same unit that killed Bin Laden in his Pakistan hideout in 2011, one senior US military official said.
Mr Little confirmed that US military personnel were involved in a counter-terrorism operation against a known al-Shabab terrorist in Somalia, but did not provide details.
The leader of al-Shabab, Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, also known as Ahmed Godane, claimed responsibility for the mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya, a four-day terrorist siege that began September 21 and killed at least 67 people. A Somali intelligence official said the al-Shabab leader was the US target.
The raid in Somalia came 20 years after the Black Hawk Down battle in Mogadishu, when a mission to capture Somali warlords in the capital went awry after militiamen shot down two US helicopters. Eighteen US soldiers died in the battle, which marked the beginning of the end of that US military mission to try to bring stability to the nation.
Since then, US military intervention has been limited to missile attacks and lightning operations by special forces.
Nabbing
of Libyan militant sparks fear of backlash
The Associated Press
Monday, Oct. 7, 2013 | 2:46 p.m.
The
Libyan militant accused by Washington in the killing of the U.S. ambassador
told The Associated Press on Monday he's not worried about being next on the
list for capture by the Americans after the U.S. commando raid that spirited a
senior al-Qaida suspect out of Tripoli.
Ahmed Abu
Khattala's confidence reflects the power that Islamic militants have grown to
wield in Libya since the 2011 ouster of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi.
Militia groups, some of them inspired by al-Qaida, operated with virtual impunity
in the country, with the central government too weak to take action against
them.
Now many
of the groups are furious over Saturday's U.S. special forces raid that
captured Abu Anas al-Libi, wanted by the Americans for more than a decade over
the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa. Some have hinted at retaliation
at U.S. and other foreign interests and have lashed out at the government,
accusing it of colluding with Washington.
"We
only fear God," Abu Khattala told AP by telephone from Benghazi, when
asked if he is concerned he too could be snatched. Abu Khattala lives openly in
the city, despite the indictment against him in a U.S. court over the Sept. 11,
2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that killed the ambassador and
three other Americans. He denies any role in the attack.
One
prominent ultraconservative Muslim cleric, Sheik Ahmed bu-Sidra, warned that
"all options are on the table" after the seizing of al-Libi, who was
spirited out of the country and is now being held on a U.S. warship, according
to American officials.
Moderates
will be unable to silence possible retaliation by "insane Libyans who
think death is a way to get close to God," bu-Sidra said.
For more
than two years, Libya has been held hostage to increasingly powerful militias.
Initially they were formed out of rebel brigades that fought Gadhafi's forces
in 2011 uprising. The government has relied on them to carry out security
duties because of the weakness of the army, but they have carved out spheres of
power of their own, and many are made up of Islamic extremists.
No week
passes without assassinations and abductions of top security officials and army
officers, especially in Benghazi, the country's second largest city. In a
particularly humiliating show of state weakness, the son of defense minister
was kidnapped on Sept. 24.
"This
is a crime against the state, aimed at preventing the minister from pushing
ahead with his plan to put all the armed groups" under military control,
the head of the defense committee in the legislature, Bel-Qassem Derizib said.
After
al-Libi's capture, the Libyan government said in a statement that it knew
nothing about the raid and had asked the Americans for
"clarifications" about the operation. Prime Minister Ali Zidan left
the country Sunday for a three-day visit to Morocco.
The
operation _ which came on the same day that U.S. Navy Seals attempted to
capture an al-Qaida-linked militant in Somalia _ signaled an American readiness
to go after militants in nations where authorities are unable to do so.
That has
raised expectations in Libya that further raids could follow, and many
militants are convinced the Libyan government is colluding with the Americans.
"If
the U.S. administration is cooperating with the (Libyan) government, then we
hold the government responsible," Abu Khattala said. "If they did it
without Libyan government's knowledge, then this is violation of the
sovereignty of the Libyan state, which we reject."
"We
don't want them here if they act against us," he said, referring to
foreigners in Libya. "If you are a guest, then act respectfully, otherwise
your presence is not welcome."
Abu
Khattala was the commander of an Islamist militia group called the Abu Obaida
bin Jarrah Brigade. However, he said he abandoned the militia and now works as
a construction contractor. In earlier interview, Abu Khattala told the AP that
he was not in hiding and had not been questioned by Libyan authorities over the
consulate attack.
"I
am in my city, having a normal life and have no troubles," he said.
Officials
in the U.S. have said he and an unspecified number of others were named in a
sealed complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. It's unclear what
charges he and the others face.
A
previously unknown coalition of Islamic militants in three eastern Libyan
cities _ Benghazi, al-Bayda and Darna _ issued a statement Monday vowing to
avenge al-Libi's capture _ and blaming the government. It called the abduction
a "shameful act which will cost the Libyan government a lot."
Several
dozen members of the Ansar al-Shariah _ al-Qaida inspired group blamed earlier
for playing a role in the attack on US consulate protested on Sunday in
Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, denouncing al-Libi's abduction and
criticizing the government. "Where are the men of Tripoli while this is
happening?" they chanted, waving black Islamist flags.
A former
militant with the Ansar al-Shariah militant group said the raid "just
opened the doors of hell and it will be like the U.S. operation in Somalia. The
youth here are ready to fight," he said.
He said
that counterattacks will be unavoidable, including kidnappings. He spoke on
condition of anonymity because of fears for his security.
An
Islamist in Tripoli close to the former Libyan Islamic Fighting Group warned
that extremists could kidnap or attack Americans here. The LIFG was a longtime
opponent of Gadhafi whose members fled the country with some defecting to join
al-Qaida. Some members now hold positions of authority in the country.
He too
spoke on condition of anonymity, for fear of repercussions from militants.
"There
is real fear of the reaction targeting foreigners, who are innocents and who
have nothing to do with what the United States did here. Such as businessmen or
companies," he said, "this will hurt Libya's economy at a time we are
searching for stability and normalcy."
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