Fighting terrorists
A strike against al-Qaeda

Feb 1st 2008
From Economist.com

The killing of Abu Laith al-Libi

AFP


HE WAS not Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri, the most famous of al-Qaeda’s leaders. But to the devotees of global jihad on the internet, Abu Laith al-Libi, was an increasingly well-known figure. His death was important enough for one of the main jihadist websites to post a black banner announcing the “good news” of his martyrdom even before America had a chance to rejoice.

The details of his death are still uncertain. The Pentagon, for one, denies any involvement. But it seems likely that he was killed in Pakistan’s border region of North Waziristan earlier this week by a missile fired from across the border in Afghanistan by an unmanned CIA drone. The CIA has been pressing to be allowed to operate on the ground in the lawless tribal belt, but Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf has rejected any such encroachment. The long shot from the air may have been a compromise deal, or at least a deniable means for America to strike at its foes.


Mr Libi, as his nom-de-guerre implies, was a veteran of Libya’s jihadist movement. He is believed to have fought with the mujahideen against the Soviet occupiers of Afghanistan, returning to Libya in 1994 in the hopes of stoking revolution against the rule of Muammar Qaddafi, and then fleeing to Saudi Arabia when the rising failed. He spent time in jail in Saudi Arabia and then moved back to Afghanistan where he became a high-ranking leader in the second tier of al-Qaeda bosses.

Last year he became more prominent on the internet, where his white-turbaned features have been the subject of two video homilies—one calling for Westerners to be kidnapped and another declaring that jihadist groups were preparing for an assault on Israel and then to impose Islam on the world. In his last appearance, in November, he announced the long-rumoured formal merger of his Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) with al-Qaeda.

This follows a similar union in 2006 between al-Qaeda and Algeria’s Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, better known by its French abbreviation, the GSPC. Since then Algeria has been struck by a series of spectacular suicide bombings. LIFG’s merger may have presaged an extension of attacks farther across the Maghreb. All this generates great nervousness among Europe’s anti-terrorism officials who fear that al-Qaeda’s attacks will cross the Mediterranean, through a network of North African migrants, in the same way as al-Qaeda has exploited the Pakistani diaspora in Britain.

Until now, however, Mr Libi’s activities seemed to be concentrated closer to his base in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. He was believed to be one of al-Qaeda’s more important operatives in Afghanistan. He was linked, for instance, to the suicide bombing in February on the outer edge of Bagram airbase, the American nerve centre in Afghanistan, at a time when Vice-President Dick Cheney was visiting.

Pleasing as it may be to Western officials, Mr Libi’s death is unlikely to have much of an impact on the insurgency in Afghanistan, which is being waged mainly by Pashtun tribesmen who have had ample experience of irregular warfare. Foreign fighters may help to stiffen the Taliban’s ideological commitment, and may bring some technical expertise. It is likely, for instance, that the Taliban’s resort to Iraq-style suicide bombings was an innovation facilitated by al-Qaeda, perhaps involving Mr Libi himself. But it will go on without him.

Al-Qaeda’s global activities, particularly in the Maghreb, may have been checked, for a while at least until it establishes how Mr Libi was tracked. But al-Qaeda has lost important figures in the past and has impressed intelligence agencies with its ability to regenerate its leaders.

The real significance is that al-Qaeda’s sanctuary in Pakistan’s tribal belt is not completely secure; terrorism may have a long arm, but so do the West’s intelligence agencies. As Mr Zawahiri himself has said, half the battle is “in the media”. Mr Libi’s death was, if nothing else, a propaganda victory for Western security agencies. But al-Qaeda’s campaign of violence will go on.

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