Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States has reported the capture of a leading
Al Qaida operative linked to mass-casualty attacks in Africa.

Officials said U.S. special forces captured Nazih Abdul Hamed Al Ruqai,
known as Abu Anas Al Libi, on Oct. 5 in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.

Al Libi was determined to have played a leading role in Al Qaida’s attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

“We hope that this makes clear that the United States of America will never stop in the effort to hold those accountable who conduct acts of terror,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Oct. 6. “Members of Al
Qaida and other terrorist organizations literally can run but they can’t hide.”

Kerry did not provide details of Al Libi’s capture. He also did not say whether the interim government in Libya cooperated in the U.S. operation.

The Defense Department said Al Libi was spirited out of Libya to an
unknown location, which American media reports asserted was a U.S. Navy
vessel. Al Libi, with a $5 million bounty on his head, has been on the FBI’s
most wanted list since 2001.

Libya has demanded an explanation from the United States for the capture
of Al Libi. Al Libi’s family said he was abducted by men from three cars
outside his Tripoli home.

The U.S. operation in Tripoli came on the same day as an attack on a
suspected Al Qaida stronghold in Somalia. The Al Qaida-aligned Shabab
movement confirmed the U.S. attack, but said the raiders, hampered by heavy
resistance, failed to capture their target.

  Abu Anas Al Libi, John Kerry, U.S. special forces capture most-wanted terrorist in Libya