From the Counterterrorism Blog (Hat Tip: Rocket’s Brain Trust):

By Andrew Cochran

The SITE Intelligence Group reports that, “Al-Ekhlaas, a password-protected Al-Qaeda-affiliated forum, today, January 31, 2008, (announced) the death of Abu Laith Al-Libi, an Al-Qaeda leader who was also the head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). Media reports earlier indicated that the deputy of Abu Laith was killed in an air strike in Mir Ali, Northern Waziristan on Monday, January 28.”

Evan Kohlmann posted about Al-Libi, the LIFG, and Al Qaeda on November 3 of last year, after Al-Qaida’s As-Sahab Media Foundation released an audio recording featuring Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri and Al-Libi (see Jeffrey Imm’s post summarizing that tape, in which al-Zawahiri called for the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime). Evan posted that the LIFG had been affiliated with Al Qaeda for years, according to the testimony of confessed former Moroccan Al-Qaida operative L’Houssaine Kherchtou in U.S. federal court during United States v. Usama Bin Laden et al in 2001.

The LIFG has been the subject of targeted U.S. government action for years. President Bush included the LIFG in the long list of Al-Qaida affiliates named as Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entities in Executive Order 13224 on September 23, 2001, in the immediate aftermath of the 9-11 attacks. On February 8, 2006, the Treasury Department designated five individuals and four entities for their role in financing LIFG (see Douglas Farah’s post on that designation).

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