[NEWS24] A senior al-Qaeda leader was reportedly killed in a late-night drone strike that hit his home in Libya's remote south, a Libyan news agency said on Tuesday.Yesterday the Libya Observer said he was still alive and suffering from minor wounds.
The strike was suspected to be the work of a Western military but a Pentagon spokesperson denied it was carried out by the United States.
The LANA news agency said that Abu Talha al-Hassnawi, a key figure in al-Qaeda's North African affiliate, was killed in his house in Sabha late on Monday.
According to the agency, al-Hassnawi was previously a leading member of al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, and was a leading recruiter of fighters heading to fight in Syria's vicious and complex conflict that has seen rival al-Qaeda and Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
snuffies battle each other.
Al-Hassnawi was also purportedly close to a top holy warrior once considered the most dangerous man in the Sahara - the one-eyed terror leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a former member of al-Qaeda's North Africa branch - and has been seen in his company in the past.
LANA also said that al-Hassnawi had fled to Sabha from the northern coastal city of Sirte, where Libyan militias and forces loyal to the UN-brokered government in the capital, Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
, are battling the Islamic State affiliate with the help of US
The LANA news agency that reported al-Hassnawi's death is affiliated with the east-based government.
A resident who lives near Sabha said the strike took place at 23:15 on Monday and that it targeted a house the Gurtha Shati village on Sabha's outskirts.
The attack left seven bodies completely charred so it was impossible to identify al-Hassnawi, he added.
The locals knew that the al-Qaeda leader had been in the house but "no one can tell who is who" among the bodies, the witness said, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
fearing for his safety.
The witness also said he had seen al-Hassnawi together with Belmokhtar, whom a US drone strike failed to kill last year in the eastern Libyan town of Adjabiya, and that the two "came back from the fighting in Sirte."
It was not immediately possible to verify his account and local officials could not be reached for comment.