US commandos have captured an Al-Qaeda leader, Anas al-Liby, accused of the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which killed more than 220 people.
Al-Liby, whose real name is Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, has been on the FBI’s most wanted list for more than a decade with a $5m (approximately Ksh. 425m) bounty on his head.
Al-Liby was seized in the capital Tripoli.
Al-Liby “is currently lawfully detained by the US military in a secure location outside of Libya”, Pentagon spokesman George Little said.
Al-Liby has been now indicted in a New York court in connection with the attacks.
The US Special Forces have carried out two separate raids in Africa targeting senior Islamist militants.
Another leader of the Al-Shabaab group was also targeted in Southern Somalia, but that raid appears to have not yielded any fruits.
The official added that in Barawe the commandos had decided to abort the mission after encountering fierce resistance from Al-Shabaab fighters.
“The Barawe raid was planned a week and a half ago,” a US security official said.
The Al-Shabaab leader, who has not been identified, is suspected of involvement in last month’s attack in the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi, Kenya, which left at least 67 people dead.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said the operations in Libya and Somalia showed that the US would never stop “in its effort to hold those accountable who conduct acts of terror”.
Those who attacked American interests “can run but they can’t hide”, he told reporters in Indonesia where he is attending an Asian summit.
By Beth Nyaga/BBC News
Source-citizennews.co.ke
