Abu al-Laith al-Liby: Al-Qaida Loses a Guiding Light

By Evan Kohlmann

He may not be Usama Bin Laden or Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri--and he may not be a household name--but Abu al-Laith al-Liby was certainly among Al-Qaida's most senior military commanders, and his reported death now leaves Al-Qaida and the Taliban with a significant short-term leadership vacuum on the ground in Afghanistan. In a statement issued today, the Al-Fajr Media Center--the same logistical organization responsible for distributing statements by Usama Bin Laden--broke the news of Abu al-Laith's passing, but did not specify how he had been killed. The statement did credit Abu al-Laith as a key mujahideen leader in Afghanistan, responsible for--among other things--"overseeing training camps."

According to former Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) member Noman Benotman, Abu al-Laith had fought with the mujahideen in Afghanistan during the early 1990s, returning to Libya in 1994 in hopes of sparking an Islamic revolution against the Qaddafi regime. Following the collapse of the LIFG armed campaign inside Libya, Abu al-Laith fled to Saudi Arabia—where he was briefly incarcerated following the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing—and eventually on to Afghanistan. After developing a close relationship with Arab and local mujahideen factions alike in Afghanistan, Abu al-Laith became an important organizer and coordinator of jihadi activity--particularly between and among various North African militant groups. In 2000, Shaykh Abu al-Laith al-Liby gave several thousand dollars to representatives from the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM) in a bid to help expand their activities. More recently, Abu al-Laith has been the primary subject of at least two full-length video recordings released by Al-Qaida’s official “As-Sahab Media Foundation” in the past year alone. At the time of his death, he was considered to be one of the top commanders in charge of Al-Qaida’s ground forces in southern Afghanistan, responsible for carrying out terrorist operations in the restive Khost, Paktia, and Ghazni Provinces, and the region bordering Miram Shah, Pakistan. According to the U.S. Defense Department, the Libyan specialized in the production of improvised explosive devices and advanced guerilla warfare tactics.

Needless to say, Abu al-Laith has been repeatedly singled out for praise by a variety of fellow Al-Qaida commanders around the world. The thirtieth issue of Al-Qaida’s Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of Jihad) Magazine included an interview with Karim al-Mejjati, a senior Moroccan Al-Qaida operative who allegedly helped execute a series of suicide bombing attacks in Saudi Arabia and Morocco in 2003, and who openly acknowledged serving “in the charge” of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. In addition to offering praise for KSM during his interview, al-Mejjati likewise noted, “I will not forget my brother and commander Abu al-Laith al-Liby, may Allah help him, who was my commander in Kabul before the city fell.”

For more information on the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and its ongoing relationship with Al-Qaida, see the NEFA Foundation dossier on the LIFG.

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