Secretary of State John Kerry has justified the capture by US forces of a terrorism suspect in Tripoli as ‘legal and appropriate’. He thus responded to Libya governments’ demand for explanations over what happened.
Kerry has reacted to the ‘kidnapping’ complaint from the Libyan
government by recommending it “not to sympathize with alleged
terrorists but to underscore the importance of the rule of law."
"I hope the perception is in the world that people who commit
acts of terror and who have been appropriately indicted by courts
of law, by the legal process, will know that the United States of
America is going to do anything in its power that is legal and
appropriate in order to enforce the law and to protect our
security," Kerry told reporters on Monday.
Libya voiced its concern on Sunday, a day after US forces
captured in Tripoli a suspected senior Al-Qaeda leader, Nazih
Abdul-Hamed Ruqai, known by his alias Abu Anas el-Liby, wanted
for his alleged role in the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Kenya and
Tanzania.
"The Libyan government is following the news of the kidnapping
of a Libyan citizen who is wanted by US authorities,” Prime
Minister Ali Zeidan said as cited by Reuters. "The Libyan
government has contacted US authorities to ask them to provide an
explanation."
Zeidan reportedly fears that if he is accused of complicity with
the US over the capture of Liby, which could lead to his
confrontation with the Islamist part of the government that came
to power following West-helped Muammar Gaddafi’s ousting two
years ago.
Instead of contributing to security, the US raid in Libya might
lead to just the opposite, according to Abdul Bassit Haroun, a
former Islamist militia commander who works with the Libyan
government.
"This won't just pass," Haroun said, as cited by Reuters.
"There will be a strong reaction in order to take revenge
because this is one of the most important Al-Qaeda figures."
Western experts agree. Historian and writer Jay Janson is
doubtful operations, like the one in Libya, are going to solve
anything.
“They eliminated the Al-Shabaab leader a couple of years ago.
It didn’t mean anything. Al-Shabaab became stronger. After Bin
Laden is gone, Al-Qaeda is stronger everywhere,” he told RT.
Liby is now being questioned by the US High Value Detainee
Interrogation Group – a multi-security agency unit tasked with
interrogating high-value suspects – aboard the USS San Antonio
ship in the Mediterranean Sea.
The same day the US forces captured Liby in Tripoli, they also made an attempt at seizing Al-Shabaab leader in Somalia. The operation was conducted by a US Navy SEAL team. Reports of the outcome are conflicting with some saying the team was forced to withdraw before it could confirm any casualties, and others insisting some of Al-Shabaab militants were killed.
A US official told AP the target of the raid by Navy SEALs in Somalia over the weekend was a Kenyan man named Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir.
The man, also known as Ikrima, was a known operator for the Somali militant group al-Shabab.
A Kenyan government intelligence document names him as the coordinator of other planned attacks, including a foiled plot targeting Kenya's parliament building and the UN office in Nairobi, as well as an Ethiopian restaurant patronized by Somali government officials.
Abdulkadir appears to have escaped Saturday’s raid unscathed. The
US official who confirmed Abdulkadir as the target insisted on
anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with the media.
Seth G. Jones, a counterterrorism expert at the RAND Corp. and
former military adviser has in an interview with AFP praised the
raids by special forces, as they result in fewer civilian
casualties than drone strikes and also allow for interrogation of
suspects. At the same time he warned of potential risks of
specifically targeting terrorist organizations’ leaders.
Jones gave an example from recent history when a Pakistani group,
Tehreek-e-Taliban, was "fairly parochial" until a US drone strike
killed its leader Baitullah Mehsud in 2009. The group allegedly
responded with a 2010 failed car bombing attempt in New York's
Times Square.
"The US has to be careful with direct engagement with
Al-Shabaab as it leaves open the possibility that they may
attempt to strike back against the United States in East Africa
or may try to do it outside East Africa," Jones said.
There’s also an opinion that no matter how targeted and
small-scale US military operations might be – it’s still a wrong
path to go, which only leads to more violence. Michael Shank,
director of foreign policy at the pacifist Friends Committee on
National Legislation, says that the US should better focus on
economic development of the areas
"It appears that past US precedent in Libya and Somalia - that
of bombing, not building, societies - continues on, unmoved by
the failures of past US policy," he said. "As a result, be
prepared for more instability on the continent, not less."