http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/11/01/ssc-head-maintains-al-ruqaii-seized-by-libyans-not-americans/#axzz2javEuXB7
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/international/03-Nov-2013/jailbreaks-in-pakistan-iraq-libya-part-of-qaeda-plot?
At the D.I. Khan prison, the attackers used explosives to enter the old facility at a weak point and then gunmen charged inside, where they used loudspeakers to call out specific inmates who were well known terrorists held there. The two prisons in Iraq were attacked in similar fashion.
You have to wonder why they did this and what they’re up to,” another U.S. security source closely monitoring the events was quoted as saying.
SSC head maintains Al-Ruqaii seized by Libyans not Americans
By Ashraf Abdul Wahab and Tom Westcott.
Al-Ruqaii now faces terrorism-related charges in the US
Tripoli, 1 November 2013:
The head of the Supreme Security Committee (SSC) Hashim Bishr maintains that the kidnapping of Nazih Al-Ruqaii, alias Abu Anas Al-Libi, was executed by Libyans, not US Special Forces.
“The American story is saying that the operation was done by American units but our information says that the operation was done by Libyans,” Bishr told the Libya Herald.
Ruquii was snatched on 5 October when he returned to his house after attending early morning prayers at the mosque.
The next day US Secretary of State John Kerry said: “Yesterday our personnel in the armed forces conducted two operations in order to continue to hunt down those responsible for acts of terrorism.” He added that he wanted to “thank and congratulate the quality and courage of those young Americans who took part in those operations.” The second operation was a bungled attempt in Somalia to seize Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir, a top commander of the islamist militant group Al-Shabaab.
Bishr said the SSC had information about the seizure of Ruqaii, including the direction vehicles involved in the abduction took, from the Nufleen district of Tripoli where he lived, to the coast. “We even know the place he was delivered to, which was one of the ports on the beach.” This is understood to be one of the small mooring places commonly used by fishing boats.
He said an American vessel was identified some 35 nautical miles off the coast of Tripoli that morning, shortly after midnight, adding: “I think this could have been the ship that received Ruqaii.” The vessel had three helicopters on board, he said, but none of these appeared to leave the ship.
It is understood that Ruqaii was questioned on board the vessel, identified as the amphibious transport ship USS San Antonio, before being transferred to America.
He appeared in a New York court on 15 October and pleaded not guilty to charges that he was involved in the double bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.
Bishr said he had not heard of Ruqaii before the abduction. He was in Libya during the revolution and spent some time in Misrata, he said, but it was not clear whether he was involved in any fighting. One of Ruqaii’s sons was killed during the liberation of Tripoli, Bishr added.
http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/11/01/etihad-airways-suspends-tripoli-flights/#axzz2javEuXB7
Etihad Airways suspends Tripoli flights
Tripoli, 1 November 2013:
The national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Etihad Airways, has suspended all flights between Abu Dhabi and Tripoli.
In a brief statement released yesterday, Etihad said the suspension of its three weekly passenger flights would be effective immediately. Also stopped are the twice weekly cargo flights.
Etihad Airways’ Chief Operations Officer Captain Richard Hill, said that the announcement followed safety and operational challenges which the airline had observed in recent months, according to Emirates 24/7.
The airline’s assessment of the existing situation at Tripoli International Airport did not provide the level of assurance required by the airline to ensure safe operation of its flights, he said.
Flights would resume, Hill said, once Etihad was satisfied that arrangements at the airport met the airline’s requirements.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Nov-03/236676-libyan-soldier-killed-by-mine-16-people-wounded-in-jail-battle-sources.ashx?#axzz2jb1u4NCK
Libyan soldier killed by mine, 16 people wounded in jail battle: SourcesNovember 03, 2013 02:18 PM
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| Men extinguish a fire after a car bomb exploded near a school where a training workshop for municipal council elections was being held, in Benghazi October 26, 2013. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori |
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BENGHAZI, Libya: A soldier was killed by a mine in the Libyan city of Benghazi and 16 people were wounded in clashes at a prison in a separate incident, security sources said on Sunday.
Lawlessness has blighted large areas of the oil-producing country following the 2011 war that toppled Muammar Gaddafi as the government has been unable to rein in militia groups and radical Islamists.
The Libyan soldier was killed and another was wounded when a mine hidden in a trash bag exploded near an army checkpoint in Benghazi late on Saturday, a security source said.
In the jail violence, a group of inmates overwhelmed a guard in Kuafiya prison - Benghazi's biggest - early on Sunday and stole his keys, another security source said. The prisoners then roamed around the building and started a fire.
The source said 15 prisoners were wounded during clashes with guards trying to restore order. One guard was wounded in the fighting.
Benghazi has seen a wave of violence since last year, with several attacks on security forces and foreign targets. An attack on the U.S. mission in September 2012 killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
A combination of strikes and protests has shut down most of Libya's oil ports and fields.
Lawlessness has blighted large areas of the oil-producing country following the 2011 war that toppled Muammar Gaddafi as the government has been unable to rein in militia groups and radical Islamists.
The Libyan soldier was killed and another was wounded when a mine hidden in a trash bag exploded near an army checkpoint in Benghazi late on Saturday, a security source said.
In the jail violence, a group of inmates overwhelmed a guard in Kuafiya prison - Benghazi's biggest - early on Sunday and stole his keys, another security source said. The prisoners then roamed around the building and started a fire.
The source said 15 prisoners were wounded during clashes with guards trying to restore order. One guard was wounded in the fighting.
Benghazi has seen a wave of violence since last year, with several attacks on security forces and foreign targets. An attack on the U.S. mission in September 2012 killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
A combination of strikes and protests has shut down most of Libya's oil ports and fields.
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/international/03-Nov-2013/jailbreaks-in-pakistan-iraq-libya-part-of-qaeda-plot?
Jailbreaks in Pakistan, Iraq & Libya part of
Qaeda plot
November 03, 2013
WASHINGTON - US counter-terrorism analysts believe that the recent jailbreaks in Pakistan, Iraq and Libya that freed hundreds of suspected militants were part of an al Qaeda plot, according to American officials.
Citing the officials, ABC News said while firm connections between the jailbreaks have not been conclusively established, similarities in the tactics al Qaeda-affiliated assault teams used to free known militants” in the three countries, which all occurred within a week of each other this summer, and a relevant message on jailbreaks from Osama bin Laden’s successor, lead many to suspect coordination. “Just this week, a small group of the escaped showed themselves to be back to their old ways, captured on video carrying out an attack against security forces in Iraq,” the leading American television network said.
At a minimum, it said, the bloody external assaults that freed the jihadis, along with a subsequent uptick in violence in North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, has caused alarm.
“We are very concerned about it,” one U.S. official tracking the jailbreaks, was quoted as saying. Officials said they feared the legion of terrorists sprung from behind bars could target US and other western interests overseas - or even in the homeland.
The Westgate mall terror attack in Nairobi, Kenya, last month, which left more than 60 dead including Western shoppers, the report said added to the jitters already felt over suddenly having to worry about hundreds of liberated inmates expert in assassination, making improvised explosive devices and leading terror cells. The prison attacks also have become a rallying cry in public statements by Al Qaeda affiliates in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Tunisia and Yemen, and prompted a global INTERPOL alert last August.
Prisons in Taji and at Abu Ghraib near Baghdad were assaulted July 21 by heavily armed terrorists, who freed comrades from al Qaeda-Iraq (AQI), according to US and Iraqi officials. Since then, a wave of suicide and vehicle bombings has slain thousands in Iraq - which officials partly blame on the freed inmates - while other former convicts have moved through al Qaeda staging areas in the western desert to fight in Syria.
“You can’t ascribe all of the violence to the jailbreaks, but it has replenished AQI’s stocks,” one US official told ABC News. “They have given AQI an advantage with their numbers and experience.”
There were more than 600 [escapees], most are AQI, ISIS and other terrorists,” Hakim Al-Zamili, a member of the Iraqi parliament who closely follows security issues, said in Baghdad. “Those AQI fighters have the ability to influence and to work in groups on the ground. The jailbreak operations have given them the motive and support to move on, and also the motive to free other [terrorist] inmates.”
Al Qaeda on Friday posted video online of armed former inmates who escaped from Abu Ghraib capturing and executing Iraqi military officers, the report said.
A week after the Iraq breakouts, more than 1,000 inmates escaped a prison in Benghazi, Libya, though many who overwhelmed the jail were said to be relatives of petty criminals held there, one of the U.S. officials cautioned. Other prisoners escaped in much smaller numbers in separate incidents elsewhere in Libya around the same period. On July 30, a prison in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, was attacked by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan using almost identical tactics, techniques and procedures as in al Qaeda’s Iraq assaults.
Citing the officials, ABC News said while firm connections between the jailbreaks have not been conclusively established, similarities in the tactics al Qaeda-affiliated assault teams used to free known militants” in the three countries, which all occurred within a week of each other this summer, and a relevant message on jailbreaks from Osama bin Laden’s successor, lead many to suspect coordination. “Just this week, a small group of the escaped showed themselves to be back to their old ways, captured on video carrying out an attack against security forces in Iraq,” the leading American television network said.
At a minimum, it said, the bloody external assaults that freed the jihadis, along with a subsequent uptick in violence in North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, has caused alarm.
“We are very concerned about it,” one U.S. official tracking the jailbreaks, was quoted as saying. Officials said they feared the legion of terrorists sprung from behind bars could target US and other western interests overseas - or even in the homeland.
The Westgate mall terror attack in Nairobi, Kenya, last month, which left more than 60 dead including Western shoppers, the report said added to the jitters already felt over suddenly having to worry about hundreds of liberated inmates expert in assassination, making improvised explosive devices and leading terror cells. The prison attacks also have become a rallying cry in public statements by Al Qaeda affiliates in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Tunisia and Yemen, and prompted a global INTERPOL alert last August.
Prisons in Taji and at Abu Ghraib near Baghdad were assaulted July 21 by heavily armed terrorists, who freed comrades from al Qaeda-Iraq (AQI), according to US and Iraqi officials. Since then, a wave of suicide and vehicle bombings has slain thousands in Iraq - which officials partly blame on the freed inmates - while other former convicts have moved through al Qaeda staging areas in the western desert to fight in Syria.
“You can’t ascribe all of the violence to the jailbreaks, but it has replenished AQI’s stocks,” one US official told ABC News. “They have given AQI an advantage with their numbers and experience.”
There were more than 600 [escapees], most are AQI, ISIS and other terrorists,” Hakim Al-Zamili, a member of the Iraqi parliament who closely follows security issues, said in Baghdad. “Those AQI fighters have the ability to influence and to work in groups on the ground. The jailbreak operations have given them the motive and support to move on, and also the motive to free other [terrorist] inmates.”
Al Qaeda on Friday posted video online of armed former inmates who escaped from Abu Ghraib capturing and executing Iraqi military officers, the report said.
A week after the Iraq breakouts, more than 1,000 inmates escaped a prison in Benghazi, Libya, though many who overwhelmed the jail were said to be relatives of petty criminals held there, one of the U.S. officials cautioned. Other prisoners escaped in much smaller numbers in separate incidents elsewhere in Libya around the same period. On July 30, a prison in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, was attacked by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan using almost identical tactics, techniques and procedures as in al Qaeda’s Iraq assaults.
The attackers liberated a dozen or more known terrorists picked up in the tribal areas. The sophisticated D.I. Khan operation was claimed to have been carried out by former Pakistani air force officer-turned-extremist Adnan Rasheed, who was busted out of a prison in Bannu last spring, itg was pointed out.
He subsequently helped form a special terror unit in the tribal areas, Ansar al-Aseer, to stage more attacks to free terrorists in Pakistan, he declared in a video online.
“The first purpose of this group is to make your release possible by all means,” Rasheed said, addressing those locked up, as he squatted with two European mujahideen cradling Kalashnikov rifles in their laps.
Violence has continued in Pakistan, but links to the hardcore extremists freed in the recent jailbreaks has not been firmly established, the report said.
The incidents in the three countries coincided with a new tape on July 31 by al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who took the reins of the terror group after Osama bin Laden’s death at the hands of U.S. Navy SEALs in May 2011. Some may have laughed at his promise to free terrorists in the heavily garrisoned U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but he also repeated past vows that al Qaeda “will not spare any effort until we free them and all our captives.”
Some U.S. officials told ABC News that the attacks particularly in Pakistan and Iraq suggested a coordinated operation by core al Qaeda, led by Zawahiri. Other officials said most of those who escaped the prisons were more a threat to the region orAmerican interests overseas than the U.S. homeland, and evidence of any coordinated strategy was only circumstantial, the report pointed out. But the incidents in Iraq and Pakistan involved assaults from the outside that bore distinct similarities. agreed.
He subsequently helped form a special terror unit in the tribal areas, Ansar al-Aseer, to stage more attacks to free terrorists in Pakistan, he declared in a video online.
“The first purpose of this group is to make your release possible by all means,” Rasheed said, addressing those locked up, as he squatted with two European mujahideen cradling Kalashnikov rifles in their laps.
Violence has continued in Pakistan, but links to the hardcore extremists freed in the recent jailbreaks has not been firmly established, the report said.
The incidents in the three countries coincided with a new tape on July 31 by al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who took the reins of the terror group after Osama bin Laden’s death at the hands of U.S. Navy SEALs in May 2011. Some may have laughed at his promise to free terrorists in the heavily garrisoned U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but he also repeated past vows that al Qaeda “will not spare any effort until we free them and all our captives.”
Some U.S. officials told ABC News that the attacks particularly in Pakistan and Iraq suggested a coordinated operation by core al Qaeda, led by Zawahiri. Other officials said most of those who escaped the prisons were more a threat to the region orAmerican interests overseas than the U.S. homeland, and evidence of any coordinated strategy was only circumstantial, the report pointed out. But the incidents in Iraq and Pakistan involved assaults from the outside that bore distinct similarities. agreed.
At the D.I. Khan prison, the attackers used explosives to enter the old facility at a weak point and then gunmen charged inside, where they used loudspeakers to call out specific inmates who were well known terrorists held there. The two prisons in Iraq were attacked in similar fashion.
You have to wonder why they did this and what they’re up to,” another U.S. security source closely monitoring the events was quoted as saying.
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