Attack avenging death of US suspect in Al Qaeda embassy attacks

Although Islamic State’s extensive use of Twitter and social media allows media houses to  determine when the terrorist organisation claims an operation to its name, it is another matter whether ISIS has a permanent presence inside Libya.

The success of ISIS is its franchising model, essentially allowing Islamist factions fighting governments to announce they are taking up the Islamic State’s mandate to extend the Islamic caliphate.

News of Libyan nationals proclaiming their allegiance to Islamic State came on 3 October, 2014, when a Libyan jihadist group – the Majlis Shura Shabab al-Islam, or Islamic Youth Shura Council (MSSI) – announced that it had claimed the city of Derna as part of the ‘caliphate’.

Derna has a long history of Islamist insurrection that suffered under the rule of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

The MSSI began to conduct hisba (accountability) within Derna, essentially calling individuals to account for their “non-Islamic” behaviour, sometimes through vigilantism. The group also instituted hudoud (criminal punishments under Shari’a), going so far as to perform a Taliban-esque public execution at a football stadium on 18 August.

Avenging Abu Anas

According to yesterday’s attackers, the Corinthia attack was a revenge operation for the death of Abu Anas al Libi, an alleged al Qaeda operative accused of involvement in the bombings of United States embassies in Africa who was captured by US special forces in Libya.

The Libyan national died in an American hospital on 3 January, 2015. His real name was Nazih al-Ruqaii. The 50-year-old was accused of playing a role in the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The two bombings killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and injured thousands more.

Al Libi died after his already poor health suddenly worsened, having been taken from the Metropolitan Correctional Centre to a New York hospital due to sudden complications arising out of his long-standing medical problems.

US Army Delta Force soldiers snatched him from outside his family home in Tripoli in October 2013.

He suffered from advanced hepatitis C, and had been in a hospital in a coma before his death. His son also said his father had also developed liver cancer since his capture.

The family held the United States government "fully responsible" for what happened to the man they call al-Ruqaii, Mouin al Ruqaii told CNN. Mouin earlier had said that the family had urged the US authorities to allow them to visit al Libi, but that those requests had been denied.

Al Libi was indicted in 2001 by the federal court in the Southern District of New York on charges of conspiracy to kill US nationals, murder, destruction of American buildings and government property and destruction of national defence utilities of the United States.

More than a decade later, the top US terror suspect was captured on the street in front of his home as he returned in his car from morning prayers. He was then held on a US Navy ship for several days – when he was questioned by members of a high-value detainee interrogation team – before being taken to New York.

When he appeared in federal court in New York, he pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges brought against him and told the judge he played no role in the 1998 attacks. His wife said at the time of his capture that he was no longer a member of al Qaeda, had been living a normal life and was seeking a job with the Libyan oil ministry.