Al-Qaeda leader in control of US hush-hush base in Libya: Report

A leader of an al-Qaeda-affiliated group has taken control of a secretive US training base near the Libyan capital, Tripoli, in order to hunt down militants, an analyst says.

Eli Lake wrote in a column published on Wednesday in the Daily Beast that the US began renovating the camp, which had belonged to the Libyan military, in 2012 to train the African country’s special forces.

The 27camp, named for the distance from Tripoli, was taken by Ibrahim Ali Abu Bakr Tantoush, a veteran associate of Osama bin Laden and the leader of Peshawar-based group, the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society, the columnist wrote, citing reports from local media.

Lake also quoted US defense officials as saying that the reports matched the country’s intelligence reports from Libya.

Two militant groups attacked the camp in June 2013 and seized a number of American weapons, night vision equipment, M-4 rifles, pistols, military vehicles, and ammunition. There were no US forces at the base at the time and only local Libyans were protecting it, he said.

On Tuesday, Tantoush told Libyan television that he was in the African country but denied any direct or indirect link to the camp. He also said he has never taken part in terrorist attacks for al-Qaeda.

Lake also quoted al-Qaeda expert Seth Jones as saying that Libya has become a haven for many al-Qaeda-linked groups.

“There are a number of training camps for a wide range of al-Qaeda groups that have surfaced in southwest Libya, northwest Libya in and around Tripoli and northeast Libya in and around Benghazi,” Jones said.

The columnist also said militants have made advances across Libya and used the country to funnel militants across the region.

“Libya in general is a major thoroughfare, the I-95 for foreign fighters into Syria from Africa,” Lake quoted a US defense official as saying.

Libya remains grappling with rising insecurity nearly three years after the popular revolution that led to the fall of late Muammar Gaddafi.

Over the past few months, Tripoli and its suburbs have been hit by violent clashes between rival militias who toppled the Gaddafi regime.