Yet another Al Qaeda leader is off the streets:
In two operations in Africa nearly 3,000 miles apart, U.S. military forces went after two high-value targets over the weekend.
One operation took place early Saturday in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, when U.S. forces captured Abu Anas al Libi, an al Qaeda leader wanted for his role in the deadly 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
In the second raid, a team of U.S. Navy SEALs in southern Somalia targeted the top leader of Al-Shabaab, a terrorist group linked with al Qaeda.
As al Libi was returning to his house from morning prayers, a group of 10 men surprised him, a person who knows al Libi’s family said. Citing al Libi’s wife, Noman Benotman told CNN that the al Qaeda leader tried to reach into his car’s glove compartment to grab his gun — but the men quickly snatched him. A source close to Libyan intelligence said the 10 men were masked.
The Libyan interim government called the U.S. capture a kidnapping and has requested an explanation from Washington about the raid, the country’s state news agency reported Sunday. Libya emphasized its citizens should be tried in Libya if they are facing charges, LANA reported.
In the Somalia raid, the SEALs came under fire and withdrew before they could confirm whether they killed their target, a senior U.S. official said.
Although only some news reports mention it, it can’t be coincidental that these operations come not long after the Al Qead-group-linked attack on popular mall in Kenya.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.