Rebel fighters who have seized most of Libya insist on their allegiance to a moderate brand of Islam without links to jihadists close to Al-Qaeda who were Muammer Gaddafi’s sworn foes.
“I do not rule out the presence of some extremist elements among the fighters, but you can’t speak of Al-Qaeda-like groups like those operating in Afghanistan or Yemen,” said the fighters’ deputy chief, General Sliman Mahmud.
“In Libya, with its moderate society and solidarity, there’s no risk of the emergence of extremist groups. In any case, the ballot boxes will have the final say,” he told reporters.
Prominent among the rebel chiefs has been Abdelhakim Belhaj, whose fighters stormed Kadhafi’s Bab al-Aziziya sprawling and fortified headquarters in the heart of Tripoli on August 23.
He went on Al-Jazeera television, which referred to him as a “sheikh,” to claim credit for having driven the “tyrant Gaddafi” out of the capital.
According to France’s Liberation newspaper, the rebel commander for Tripoli was a founder of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), close to Al-Qaeda, and was arrested by the CIA before being handed over to Gaddafi in 2004.
Belhaj reportedly renounced violence while a prisoner and was released in March 2010, before joining this year’s revolution.
His return to the front line raised concerns in some quarters that the revolt against Kadhafi, with the umbrella of NATO air power, might include undemocratic forces.
But a military spokesman for the revolt, Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, denied the Liberation report.(Vanguard Newspaper)
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