Government Protests US Seizure of Al-Libi

The Libyan Prime Minister’s office has put out a statement protesting the raid by the US Delta Force in Tripoli that seized Abu Anas al-Libi:

Summary

In a raid in Libya’s capital Tripoli on Saturday, the US Army’s Delta Force captured a Libyan militant wanted for the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The suspect (pictured), born Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai and known as Abu Anas al-Libi, was captured at his home as he returned from dawn prayer. The gunmen were in a three-car convoy.

The US had posted a $5 million bounty on al-Libi for the Embassy bombings, which killed 224 people.

The raid came on the same day that a US Navy SEAL team tried to a senior leader of the al-Shabaab movement in Somalia. The SEAL team was forced to withdraw before it could confirm that it had killed the target.

Al-Shabaab, protesting the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia, attacked a Nairobi shopping mall two weeks ago and killed more than 60 people.

A senior American official said the Libyan Government was told of the Tripoli operation and provided assistance. However, an assistant to the Libyan Prime Minister said the Government had been unaware of any operation or of Abu Anas’s capture.

Asked if American forces had ever conducted raids inside Libya or collaborated with Libyan forces, Mehmoud Abu Bahia, assistant to the Defense Minister, replied, “Absolutely not.”