Qaeda-linked terrorist killed in Libya
An Al-Qaeda leader known as “Abu
Talha Al-Libi” has been killed in an operation near Sabha, southern Libya, the
Libyan National Army (LNA) said Friday.
LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari said: “Abu
Talha Al-Libi” was killed on Friday morning after a raid on a house he was
sharing with other armed men”.
Mismari named the others as Abdullah
al-Desouki, an Egyptian, and al-Mahdi Dangou, a Libyan also known as Abu
Barakat, who a Libyan official had previously said had links with Islamic
State.
Abu Talha was arrested in 1996 by
the Libyan security services for an attempt to assassinate Muammar Gaddafi.
He left for Syria in 2013 where he
was put in charge of a group of foreign extremist fighters who opposed the
Assad regime. Abu Talha helped other extremists set up the Al-Nusra Front, and
returned to Libya in 2014.
Abu Talha was also closely
associated with Al-Qaeda leaders in northern Africa.
LNA commander Khalifa Haftar
launched a military operation in southern Libya to eradicate terrorist groups
there.
