Commandant Gen. Jim Amos, visits the U.S. embassy compound in Tripoli, Libya, on June 16, 2013. He is speaking with a member of 4th Force Reconnaissance Company., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Kerry says US raid in Libya ‘legal’, vows more
October 8, 2013
NUSA DUA. — United States Secretary of State John Kerry has justified the capture by US forces of a terrorism suspect in Tripoli as “legal and appropriate”. He thus responded to Libya governments’ demand for explanations over what happened. Kerry has reacted to the ‘kidnapping’ complaint from the Libyan government by recommending it “not to sympathise with alleged terrorists but to underscore the importance of the rule of law.”
“I hope the perception is in the world that people who commit acts of terror and who have been appropriately indicted by courts of law, by the legal process, will know that the United States of America is going to do anything in its power that is legal and appropriate in order to enforce the law and to protect our security,” Kerry told reporters yesterday.
Libya voiced its concern on Sunday, a day after US forces captured in Tripoli a suspected senior Al-Qaeda leader, Nazih Abdul-Hamed Ruqai, known by his alias Abu Anas el-Liby, wanted for his alleged role in the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
Liby, who was indicted in connection with the 1998 embassy bombings in east Africa that left more than 200 people dead, had a US$5 million FBI bounty on his head.
“The Libyan government is following the news of the kidnapping of a Libyan citizen who is wanted by US authorities,” Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said as cited by Reuters.
“The Libyan government has contacted US authorities to ask them to provide an explanation.”
Zeidan reportedly fears that if he is accused of complicity with the US over the capture of Liby, this could lead to confrontation with the Islamist part of the government that came to power following the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi two years ago with Nato’s assistance.
Instead of contributing to security, the US raid in Libya might lead to just the opposite, according to Abdul Bassit Haroun, a former Islamist militia commander who works with the Libyan government.
“This won’t just pass,” Haroun said, as cited by Reuters. “There will be a strong reaction in order to take revenge because this is one of the most important Al-Qaeda figures.”
Western experts agree. Historian and writer Jay Janson is doubtful operations, like the one in Libya, are going to solve anything.
“They eliminated the Al-Shabaab leader a couple of years ago. It didn’t mean anything. Al-Shabaab became stronger. After Bin Laden is gone, Al-Qaeda is stronger everywhere,” he told RT.
The same day the US forces captured Liby in Tripoli, they also made an attempt at seizing Al-Shabaab leader in Somalia. The operation was conducted by a US Navy Seal team. Reports of the outcome are conflicting with some saying the team was forced to withdraw before it could confirm any casualties, and others insisting some Al-Shabaab militants were killed.
A US official told AP the target of the raid by Navy Seal’s in Somalia over the weekend was a Kenyan man named Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir.
The man, also known as Ikrima, was a known operator for the Somali militant group al-Shabab.
A Kenyan government intelligence document names him as the co-ordinator of other planned attacks, including a foiled plot targeting Kenya’s parliament building and the UN office in Nairobi, as well as an Ethiopian restaurant patronised by Somali government officials.
Abdulkadir appears to have escaped Saturday’s raid unscathed. The US official who confirmed Abdulkadir as the target insisted on anonymity as he was not authorised to speak with the media.
Seth G. Jones, a counterterrorism expert at the RAND Corp. and former military adviser has in an interview with AFP praised the raids by special forces, as they result in fewer civilian casualties than drone strikes and also allow for interrogation of suspects. At the same time he warned of potential risks of specifically targeting terrorist organisations’ leaders.
Jones gave an example from recent history when a Pakistani group, Tehreek-e-Taliban, was “fairly parochial” until a US drone strike killed its leader Baitullah Mehsud in 2009.
The group allegedly responded with a 2010 failed car bombing attempt in New York’s Times Square.
“The US has to be careful with direct engagement with Al-Shabaab as it leaves open the possibility that they may attempt to strike back against the United States in East Africa or may try to do it outside East Africa,” Jones said.
There’s also an opinion that no matter how targeted and small-scale US military operations might be — it’s still a wrong path to go, which only leads to more violence. Michael Shank, director of foreign policy at the pacifist Friends Committee on National Legislation, says that the US should better focus on economic development of the areas
“It appears that past US precedent in Libya and Somalia — that of bombing, not building, societies — continues on, unmoved by the failures of past US policy,” he said.
“As a result, be prepared for more instability on the continent, not less.”
— RT.
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