Draft:Abu Yahya al-Libi
| Abu Yahya al-Libi | |
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Abu Yahya al-Libi (Arabic: أبو يحيى الليبي; January 1, 1963, Marzak – June 4, 2012) was one of the senior officials of Al-Qaeda and a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.
Status
It has been reported that he could speak Urdu, Pashto, and Arabic, and used the aliases Hassan Qaid (Hassan Qiyad or Hassan Qayd), Yunus al-Sahrawi, and Hassan Qaid al-Far.
Al-Libi was a Libyan citizen who was held in the temporary detention facility at Bagram Airfield, an unlawful detention center. At that time, American counter-terrorism analysts stated that al-Libi was a member of Al-Qaeda. Al-Libi was one of several prominent Bagram detainees who escaped on the night of July 10, 2005.
Jarret Brachman, a former analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), stated regarding al-Libi:
He was a fighter. He also held military command. He is a very charismatic, young, and decisive rising star within Al-Qaeda, and I believe he has become the obvious heir to Osama bin Laden in terms of leading the entire global jihadist movement.
Schuerer stated that he emerged over the past year or so as an "Al-Qaeda ideologue" and a "rebel theologian." He also served as one of the officials on Al-Qaeda's Sharia committee.
Death
On June 4, 2012, he was targeted in Mir Ali by an attack from United States unmanned aerial vehicles. His death was later confirmed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Al-Qaeda, in a video released in September 2012 coinciding with the anniversary of September 11[1]. This new American military technology has proven so effective that it has previously killed dozens of Islamist militants and several of their senior commanders, such as Shamshad Elias Kashmiri, a prominent Al-Qaeda commander, and Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan. The death of Abu Yahya al-Libi has not yet been confirmed by the Taliban. However, the White House states that its intelligence sources have confirmed his death[2].
Aftermath
The 'Al-Qaeda' group declared that the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was carried out in retaliation for the killing of 'Abu Yahya al-Libi', the number two figure in the group. They stated that the killing of Sheikh Abu Yahya would only increase the fervor and determination of the sons of Omar Mukhtar (the hero of Libyan independence) to avenge those who attacked our Prophet[3].