As Sahab, al Qaeda’s propaganda production outfit, indicated today that Abu Yahya al Libi may be alive, and that a video of him will be released soon. From AFP [emphasis added]:
Two websites linked to Al Qaeda announced on Sunday that they will air a new video featuring the jihadist network’s deputy leader Abu Yahya al- ibi, whom Washington claimed last week to have killed.
The messages posted by Ansar and Alfidaa websites suggested that Libi remains alive.
“Soon, a video message by Sheikh Abu Yahya al Libi, may Allah protect him,” read the message posted by Al Qaeda’s Sahab media arm on both sites, one of which was put online on around 1500 GMT on Sunday.
The statement “may Allah protect him” is reserved for al Qaeda leaders who are alive. Al Qaeda will say “may Allah have on mercy him” when referring to a leader who is dead.
It is unclear when this As Sahab statement was produced. Keep in mind that al Qaeda released a Ramadan video by Atiyah Abd al Rahman less that two weeks after he was killed. The tape and the accompanying announcement appear to have been created prior to Atiyah’s death.
US intelligence officials and the Obama administration have been adamant that al Libi was killed in last week’s drone strike in North Waziristan. Our sources have also said they believe al Libi is dead. Keep in mind that there has been controversy over the reports of deaths of top al Qaeda leaders in the past (most recently, doubts were raised about initial reports on the deaths of Atiyah Abd al Rahman and Ilyas Kashmiri: al Qaeda finally announced Atiyah’s death in a martyrdom statement, while Ustad Ahmad Farooq referred to Kashmiri as being dead in a recent propaganda tape). But until al Qaeda confirms or refutes al Libi’s death, we can only speculate about his status.
It is difficult to be 100% certain if an al Qaeda leader was killed in a drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal agencies, as the Taliban control the ground there. Drones can’t bring a body back home or sweep in and gather DNA of those killed. Instead, US intelligence must rely on other means to determine if an al Qaeda operative has died: signals intelligence, rumor intelligence, etc. Short of the possession of the corpse, an official al Qaeda martyrdom statement still remains the best indicator that a leader was indeed killed. While al Qaeda doesn’t always release a martyrdom statement for a leader who was killed, I have yet to see the terror group release a false statement on the death of one of its leaders (see Threat Matrix report, Doubts raised in Pakistan over reports of Atiyah’s death, for more information).
Update – June 12, 2012
The tape has been released, and appears to be old.
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5 Comments
During the Iraq war, ISI released plenty of statements rebuting fighters deaths. Most of which were BS.
— I agree that time will tell if al-Libi is alive or dead, but i would not want to be in a brick and mortar shack being hit by any kind of explosion.
hmmm….maybe he wasn’t mortally wounded after all, bummer. If nothing else hopefully Libi is seriously physically handicapped with just enough brain left to comprehend whats wrong with him but unable to do anything about it.
And this new video will be titled ” Weekend at Libi’s”.
We’ve been proven wrong before, enough that you would think we would proceed cautiously, even with the political pressure to show the drone campaign is working. I’m guessing that we’ve learned over time that celebrating too soon is more detrimental than waiting for confirmation. Hopefully, that confirmation was done by American intel and not by relying on what the Paks tell us. The intelligence community seems pretty confident, for whatever that is worth…
It was my understanding that he was taken to a nearby hospital where he later died. This should not be hard to confirm. If he is not dead he must be gravely injured, which might be even better as his brethren will have to cart his handicapped self around making for even greater targeting opportunities.
Either way we win!