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Atiyyatullah al-Libi

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Atiyyatullah al-Libi
عطية الله الليبي
Attiyatullah in 2011
Born1969 (1969)[1]
Misrata, Libya
Died22 August 2011(2011-08-22) (aged 41–42)[2]
North Waziristan, Pakistan

Jamal Ibrahim Ashtiwi al-Misrati (Arabic: جمال إبراهيم أشتيوي المصراتي; 1969 – August 22, 2011), better known as Atiyyatullah al-Libi (Arabic: عطية الله الليبي), was a Libyan militant who served as a senior leader and operational chief of al-Qaeda, as well as a prominent member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.[3] After his death he was described in Foreign Policy as a renaissance man for "combining both strategic and ideological savvy".[4]

Early life

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Atiyyatullah al-Libi was born in Misrata, Libya in 1969. In 1988, he had volunteered to travel to Afghanistan to fight against its Soviet occupiers in the 1980s, while he was still a teenager.[5] During his time in Afghanistan, he met and pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden mentored him directly, using him as an emissary and scholar. During this period, he also trained extensively in explosives, guerrilla tactics, and Islamic jurisprudence.[6]

In the mid-1990s, al-Qaeda sent him to Algeria as an official envoy to the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) during the Algerian Civil War. However, the GIA leadership grew suspicious of him, holding him captive for five months and threatening to execute him. He eventually escaped captivity alongside several other prisoners.[7]

The Washington Post reported that another prominent Libyan exile, Noman Benotman, was sent to Algeria in the 1990s to serve as an envoy to a group they said was then known as the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). He told The Washington Post that the GIA was suspicious of him, held him captive for months, and were considering killing him. He escaped with other captives, after five months of captivity, and, according to Benotman, "He had a very bad experience, and I think is still having nightmares about it."[8] About the massacres that were committed during the Algerian Civil War, Atiyah says: "There are those who [...] say [...] the officers did that, France [did that]; etc. We are just covering up [the truth to exonerate] the people of Islam, [but] all these massacres occurred in the last days of Zitouni and days of Antar Zouabri. All of them [were committed by] the Armed Islamic Group".[9]

Return to al-Qaeda

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Following the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, al-Libi relocated to Iran, where he acted as a main liaison between al-Qaeda's central command and other regional militant groups. In December 2005, al-Libi wrote a stern letter to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. In the letter, he admonished Zarqawi for his excessive violence against Shiite civilians and urged him to align his actions with the broader political strategy of al-Qaeda's senior leadership.[10][11]

Death

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He was assassinated in Pakistan by a CIA predator drone strike on August 22, 2011.[12][13][14][15] At least eleven others were killed in the strike.[16] He was previously reported dead in October 2010.[17] His death was formally confirmed by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a video released on December 1, 2011.

The State Department's Rewards for Justice offered up to US$1 million for information about him.[3] However, he was removed from the list after he was killed.[18]

Al-Qaeda leader Atiyyatullah Al-Libi's advice was published in the Turkistan Islamic Party's magazine Islamic Turkistan.[19] Issue 19 of Islamic Turkistan cited and reprinted Al Qaeda member Atiyatallah al Libi's (عطية الله الليبي) Book of "Complete Works (كتاب الأعمال الكاملة) page 818, where he called India, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, East Turkestan, the Caucasus, Balkans, Central Asia, Southern Europe and Al Andalus as "occupied Muslim lands" by the "infidels hand" and "infidel governments", naming America as the "original infidel" enemy, and called for them to be all reconquered by the Muslims through jihad.[20] Ahmed Refai Taha and Atiyah Abd al-Rahman were shown in an Al-Qaeda video released by Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri called "Three Sheikhs of Jihad".[21]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ "Treasury Targets Key Al-Qa'ida Funding and Support Network Using Iran as a Critical Transit Point". Archived from the original on 2019-05-09. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  2. ↑ "Al-Qaida's number two killed in Pakistan". TheGuardian.com. 27 August 2011. Archived from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
  3. 1 2 Wanted poster on Atiyah Archived June 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Rewards for Justice Program, US Department of State
  4. ↑ Christopher Anzalone (9 September 2011), "Al-Qaeda loses its “renaissance man”" Archived 2020-02-29 at the Wayback Machine, Foreign Policy. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  5. ↑ "Al-Qaeda's New Leadership". The Washington Post. 2006. Archived from the original on July 15, 2011. Retrieved August 27, 2011.
  6. ↑ الأعمال الكاملة للشيخ الشهيد عطية الله الليبي (in Arabic).
  7. ↑ Center, Combating Terrorism (2012-04-23). "Revisiting Shaykh Atiyyatullah's Works on Takfir and Mass Violence". Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Retrieved 2026-08-14.
  8. ↑ McCants, William (2015). The ISIS Apocalypse: the history, strategy, ad doomsday vision of the Islamic State. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 14. ISBN 978-1-250-08090-5.
  9. ↑ التنافس بين القاعدة وتنظيم الدولة في الساحل والصحراء. 2017. Archived from the original on 2020-09-03. Retrieved 2020-09-03. هناك من يجلس على الإنترنت ويتكلم ويقول بأن الضباط من فعل ذلك وفرنسا وغير ذلك من الأمور، ونحن نتستر على أهل الإسلام، هذه المجازر جميعها ارتُكبت في آخر أيام الزيتوني وفي أيام عنتر زوابري، وكلها مجازر الجماعة الإسلامية المسلحة.
  10. ↑ Washington Post article Archived 2012-10-25 at the Wayback Machine on the Atiyah-to-Zarqawi letter
  11. ↑ Atiyah letter to Zarqawi Archived August 7, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, English translation by United States Military Academy
  12. ↑ "Al Qaeda No. 2 Atiyah Abd al-Rahman Killed in Pakistan". ABC News. Archived from the original on 2020-05-05. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  13. ↑ Matt Apuzzo (August 27, 2011). "US official: Al-Qaida's No. 2 killed in Pakistan". PJ Star. Archived from the original on June 16, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
  14. ↑ Mazzetti, Mark (August 27, 2011). "C.I.A. Drone Is Said to Kill Al Qaeda's No". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 28, 2011. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
  15. ↑ Al-Qaeda says it kidnapped Warren Weinstein in Pakistan Archived 2019-06-18 at the Wayback Machine, BBC, December 1, 2011
  16. ↑ Ackerman, Spencer (2014-11-24). "41 men targeted but 1,147 people killed: US drone strikes – the facts on the ground". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-08-27.
  17. ↑ "'Million dollar' Al Qaeda leader killed in drone attack in Pakistan". Hindustan Times. October 9, 2010. Archived from the original on September 24, 2011. Retrieved August 29, 2011.
  18. ↑ "Rewards for Justice-Wanted_Terrorist - english". www.rewardsforjustice.net. Archived from the original on 31 August 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  19. ↑ "Şeyh Atiyyetullah El Libi'nin Türkistan İslam Cemaati eski emiri Abdulşekur Damolla'ya Nasihatleri | Ümmet-i İslam | Bağımsız Enformasyon ve Medya Portalı". Ummetislam.org. Archived from the original on 10 March 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
  20. ↑ "من أقوال العلماء" (PDF). تركستان الإسلامية. No. العدد 19. April 2016. p. 57. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-09-25.
  21. ↑ "New video message from al-Qā'idah's Dr. Ayman al-Ẓawāhirī: "Carrying the Weapon of the Martyr, Episode 4: The Three Shaykhs #2"". Jihadology. February 18, 2017. Archived from the original on June 16, 2018. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
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