The death of Abu Laith al Libi, a Libyan al-Qaeda chief, has cast a spotlight on the rise of Libyan militants in a network dominated by Egyptians and Saudis, Western anti-terrorism investigators say.Al Libi was killed last week in an American missile strike on a hide-out in Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, officials say. In addition to overseeing a paramilitary campaign in Afghanistan, Al Libi had become a top figure in a propaganda barrage on the Internet, according to experts.The emergence of the Libyans, traditionally a strong but low-profile group, is a result of developments on three fronts: Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. While al-Qaeda has suffered setbacks in Iraq, Libyan militants there have proven resilient and adept at moving fighters into combat, experts say. Libyans have become the second-biggest foreign contingent in Iraq, according to a US military analysis of seized documents.Al-Qaeda’s leaders in Pakistan have rewarded the Libyans with increased power and media presence, experts say. “There is a rising leadership cadre of Libyans in al- Qaeda,” said J Vahid Brown, an analyst at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. “Egyptians have really dominated strategic and military operations. The Egyptians are good at keeping control of that, because many of them have military training. Now you have Libyan faces appearing in videos.”The group’s chief, Osama bin Laden, is a Saudi, and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, is Egyptian. Their dominance has made Gulf Arabs and Egyptians especially the organisation’s most powerful players.Western investigators say al-Qaeda’s structure is paradoxically fluid and bureaucratic at the same time. The multiethnic alliance survives by evolving on the run, but it also has a penchant for titles, budgets and paperwork.“What is curious about al-Qaeda is the contradictory nature of the organisation,” said a senior British anti-terrorism official.” “It is curiously bureaucratic.”And the network has its share of infighting.Some rifts have been ideological, such as a debate over bin Laden’s decision to launch the September 11, 2001, attacks and the crushing retaliation it provoked. In addition, conflicts have resulted from resentment of the Egyptians as well as tensions between Arabs and Central Asians, experts said.The network has an ethnic pecking order of sorts. In the late 1990s, Libyans were quiet but influential. They played the role of mentors for fellow North Africans, particularly Moroccans who were seen as “little foot soldiers”, according to a Spanish law enforcement chief.The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which has waged a longtime campaign against Moammar Gadhafi’s regime, ran a camp in Afghanistan that groomed the founders of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, according to Spanish court documents. Al Libi became a revered figure among the Moroccans.A captured Moroccan extremist named Nourredine Nafia told interrogators about meetings in Turkey in 1998 at which Libyans provided expertise about communications and organising cells, according to Italian court documents.After the US-led military strikes in Afghanistan in retaliation for the September 11 attacks, the damaged al-Qaeda leadership scattered to refuges in northwest Pakistan and elsewhere. Mid-level chiefs moved up to replace slain or captured veterans.They now operate mainly in tribal areas in Pakistan’s Waziristan region out of village compounds such as the one hit by the missile strike last week, investigators say.Although the organisational lines are not always sharp, Egyptians have tended to run an “external operations” wing that targets the West. Libyans have concentrated on paramilitary combat and attacks on Western and local targets in Pakistan and Afghanistan, experts say.
