Mark Urban -- Defense Editor at the BBC and author of a history of the Special Air Services (SAS) in Operation Iraqi Freedom -- has an interesting article on the role of British special forces in topping Qaddafi.
Although Urban is vague regarding the British role in the manhunt for the deposed Libyan strongman, he provides details of the policy debates within Prime Minister Cameron's cabinet over the deployment of special units (including the back story of how the super-elite "E Squadron" was "captured" near Benghazi), and illustrates the variety of ways these forces conduct modern irregular warfare (i.e. both direct targeting and foreign internal defense), something to be considered in the coming debates on strategy and force structure here in the United States
Showing posts with label Qaddafi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Qaddafi. Show all posts
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Monday, December 19, 2011
AP's Top News Stories of 2011
The Associated Press released its "Top News Stories of 2011" this weekend, two of which were featured prominently here on Wanted Dead or Alive:
#1 - "OSAMA BIN LADEN'S DEATH: He'd been the world's most-wanted terrorist for nearly a decade, ever since a team of his al-Qaida followers carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In May, the long and often-frustrating manhunt ended with a nighttime assault by a helicopter-borne special operations squad on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Bin Laden was shot dead by one of the raiders, and within hours his body was buried at sea."
#7 - "GADHAFI TOPPLED IN LIBYA: After nearly 42 years of mercurial and often brutal rule, Moammar Gadhafi was toppled by his own people. Anti-government protests escalated into an eight-month rebellion, backed by NATO bombing, that shattered his regime, and Gadhafi finally was tracked down and killed in the fishing village where he was born."
Alas, the third story I focused on in 2011 -- Kim Kardashian's wedding and divorce -- failed to make the cut.
#1 - "OSAMA BIN LADEN'S DEATH: He'd been the world's most-wanted terrorist for nearly a decade, ever since a team of his al-Qaida followers carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In May, the long and often-frustrating manhunt ended with a nighttime assault by a helicopter-borne special operations squad on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Bin Laden was shot dead by one of the raiders, and within hours his body was buried at sea."
#7 - "GADHAFI TOPPLED IN LIBYA: After nearly 42 years of mercurial and often brutal rule, Moammar Gadhafi was toppled by his own people. Anti-government protests escalated into an eight-month rebellion, backed by NATO bombing, that shattered his regime, and Gadhafi finally was tracked down and killed in the fishing village where he was born."
Alas, the third story I focused on in 2011 -- Kim Kardashian's wedding and divorce -- failed to make the cut.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Seif al-Islam Captured!
The AP reported this morning that Moammar Qaddafi's son Seif al-Islam, the last at-large family member of the deposed dictator, was captured after a firefight this morning in Southern Libya while trying to flee to Niger. (Qaddafi's former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi is the last member of the regime's inner circle still at-large).
CNN has a video report on the capture here.
Seif al-Islam was reportedly in on-and-off negotiations to surrender himself to the International Criminal Court for prosecution for war crimes, a fate that likely became more enticing after witnessing what became his father. My friend David Bosco wrote an interesting piece on Foreign Policy.com last month analyzing the difficulties of actually trying the Colonel's son.
CNN has a video report on the capture here.
Seif al-Islam was reportedly in on-and-off negotiations to surrender himself to the International Criminal Court for prosecution for war crimes, a fate that likely became more enticing after witnessing what became his father. My friend David Bosco wrote an interesting piece on Foreign Policy.com last month analyzing the difficulties of actually trying the Colonel's son.
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| Image from Libyan television of the recently captured Seif al-Islam |
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| Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam, no longer worried about a dangerous case of mistaken identity. |
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Two Qaddafi Post-Scripts
Well, with Moammar Qaddafi buried in a secret location, it's time to clean out my inbox of some articles that I never got around to posting.
First, a Reuters piece from September 20 in which the fugitive dictator taunts NATO, saying "The bombs of NATO planes won't last." I'm just waiting for a NATO spokesperson to respond by simply saying: "SCOREBOARD!" (Okay, I suppose Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comment, "We came, we saw, he died" made the same indelicate point).
Second, an interesting piece from The Daily Caller (via The Economist) posing the critical question: "Is (Was) Qaddafi Jewish?" And if so, where should we send the bagels and lox (or a fruit basket, perhaps)to whomever is sitting shiva for him?
First, a Reuters piece from September 20 in which the fugitive dictator taunts NATO, saying "The bombs of NATO planes won't last." I'm just waiting for a NATO spokesperson to respond by simply saying: "SCOREBOARD!" (Okay, I suppose Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comment, "We came, we saw, he died" made the same indelicate point).
Second, an interesting piece from The Daily Caller (via The Economist) posing the critical question: "Is (Was) Qaddafi Jewish?" And if so, where should we send the bagels and lox (or a fruit basket, perhaps)to whomever is sitting shiva for him?
Monday, October 24, 2011
Qaddafi's Killer?
A Libyan fighter, Senad el Sadik el Ureybi, has told a Russian television network that he personally killed Qaddafi, shooting "him twice, in the head and in the chest.
The video is available here.
Again, I have absolutely no way to verify these claims, but pass them along for your information. (Incidentally, it is ironic that this network interviews Professor Benjamin Barber, who before Qaddafi's overthrow received payments from the Libyan government (through an American PR firm) for positive public relations on behalf of the dictator).
The video is available here.
Again, I have absolutely no way to verify these claims, but pass them along for your information. (Incidentally, it is ironic that this network interviews Professor Benjamin Barber, who before Qaddafi's overthrow received payments from the Libyan government (through an American PR firm) for positive public relations on behalf of the dictator).
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Seif al-Islam Captured?
Last night NBC reported that Libyan rebels claimed to have captured Seif al-Islam Qaddafi had been captured. I haven't seen any confirmation of this yet, but will keep checking the wires throughout the day.
A sad irony of the Arab Spring is that many of the heir apparents of some autocrats, i.e. Gamal Mubarak and Seif al-Islam, were genuine reformists who advocated the modernization of their countries' economies and increased freedoms for their populations. But when the revolution came, at least in Seif al-Islam's case -- to the best of my knowledge Gamal hasn't been implicated in any crimes -- family loyalty trumped his other principles and he may have been an accomplice to the massacre of civilian demonstrators.
A sad irony of the Arab Spring is that many of the heir apparents of some autocrats, i.e. Gamal Mubarak and Seif al-Islam, were genuine reformists who advocated the modernization of their countries' economies and increased freedoms for their populations. But when the revolution came, at least in Seif al-Islam's case -- to the best of my knowledge Gamal hasn't been implicated in any crimes -- family loyalty trumped his other principles and he may have been an accomplice to the massacre of civilian demonstrators.
Qaddafi's Last Days/Words
The New York Times has a story based largely on the account of Qaddafi's cousin and aide, Mansour Dhao Ibrahim, detailing the deposed tyrant's final days as a fugitive. The most interesting detail? Perhaps that Qaddafi and his son Muatassim's bodies are being displayed to the public in a meat locker in a shopping mall in Misrata.
MSNBC's report also includes this detail, as well as an account of Qaddafi's apparent last words to his captors: "Do you know right from wrong?" This is nowhere near as impressive as Che Guevara's final statement of "Know that you are killing a man!"*, but the Colonel's epigram likely will never be surpassed on the irony meter.
* There is actually some dispute as to whether Che said: "You are killing a man!" in defiance, or "You are only killing a man" because the soldier who drew the straw to execute him was hesitant to shoot an unarmed prisoner.
MSNBC's report also includes this detail, as well as an account of Qaddafi's apparent last words to his captors: "Do you know right from wrong?" This is nowhere near as impressive as Che Guevara's final statement of "Know that you are killing a man!"*, but the Colonel's epigram likely will never be surpassed on the irony meter.
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| COL Qaddafi's body is on display at a Libyan shopping mall, apparently between the Target and Blood Bath and Beyond |
Friday, October 21, 2011
Qaddafi's Last Stand [Updated w/Photo]
Reuters has a more detailed account of Qaddafi's last minutes that seems to reconcile some of the discrepancies from previous accounts.
If this story is accurate, then Qaddafi's convoy was bombed (likely by a Predator drone) as it fled Sirte. He and his entourage took cover in some drainage pipes, from which they engaged in a firefight with NTC forces. He was either wounded in the aerial attack or the firefight (possibly by one of his own men . . . don't laugh, as one of Pancho Villa's men shot him from behind during the first month of the 1916 Punitive Expedition), at which point he was pulled out of the pipes and taken into rebel custody, where the cell phone videos we saw yesterday began.
Whether he ultimately died from the wounds incurred in these attacks, or was summarily executed by the rebels, we may never know.
UPDATE II: CBS has posted a story on Qaddafi's last moments as well, although it is a little less certain as to the timeline of events.
If this story is accurate, then Qaddafi's convoy was bombed (likely by a Predator drone) as it fled Sirte. He and his entourage took cover in some drainage pipes, from which they engaged in a firefight with NTC forces. He was either wounded in the aerial attack or the firefight (possibly by one of his own men . . . don't laugh, as one of Pancho Villa's men shot him from behind during the first month of the 1916 Punitive Expedition), at which point he was pulled out of the pipes and taken into rebel custody, where the cell phone videos we saw yesterday began.
Whether he ultimately died from the wounds incurred in these attacks, or was summarily executed by the rebels, we may never know.
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| The drainage pipes in which Qaddafi took cover from an air strike and from which he was extracted by NTC forces. |
Libyan Interim Prime Minister on Qaddafi's Death
Libyan Interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril was on NPR yesterday, and said "Nobody can tell if the [fatal] shot was from the rebel fighters or from his own security guard."
Okay, if he bled out from the wounds he suffered before being captured, this is possible.
"The [fatal] shot was in his head," Jibril said. "When he came out [from hiding] he was safe. [But] the intensity of the fire" led to Qaddafi's death.
Wait, say what?!? Was Jibril watching the same videos the rest of us were? Because: a) Moammar looked like a bloody mess when they apparently took him into custody; and b) Qaddafi was also very much alive --albeit wounded and staggering -- when the NTC forces got him.
Now I suppose it is possible that he could have survived a shot in the head long enough to walk from the hood of one car into the back of another and subsequently died of his wounds. But given the video evidence to date, it strains credulity to suggest, as Jibril does, that he was killed in a crossfire after as he was being taken into custody.
Okay, if he bled out from the wounds he suffered before being captured, this is possible.
"The [fatal] shot was in his head," Jibril said. "When he came out [from hiding] he was safe. [But] the intensity of the fire" led to Qaddafi's death.
Wait, say what?!? Was Jibril watching the same videos the rest of us were? Because: a) Moammar looked like a bloody mess when they apparently took him into custody; and b) Qaddafi was also very much alive --albeit wounded and staggering -- when the NTC forces got him.
Now I suppose it is possible that he could have survived a shot in the head long enough to walk from the hood of one car into the back of another and subsequently died of his wounds. But given the video evidence to date, it strains credulity to suggest, as Jibril does, that he was killed in a crossfire after as he was being taken into custody.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
New Qaddafi Video
This still doesn't answer the question of exactly how he was killed, but in this clip Qaddafi (assuming it is him) is clearly alive, making it all the more disturbing as he staggers, surrounded by rebel forces.
Note: I have no way to verify the authenticity of these videos. It was difficult to tell in the video below from Al Jazeera whether or not we were looking at Qaddafi's corpse or not. This video looks more like him, however, although the camera work is still jittery enough and in his wounded/dishevelled state it is not 100% obviously Qaddafi.
Note: I have no way to verify the authenticity of these videos. It was difficult to tell in the video below from Al Jazeera whether or not we were looking at Qaddafi's corpse or not. This video looks more like him, however, although the camera work is still jittery enough and in his wounded/dishevelled state it is not 100% obviously Qaddafi.
Qaddafi Video
Here is a clip from al Jazeera (via You Tube) purportedly showing Qaddafi lying wounded (and possibly dead) in the streets of Sirte. WARNING: Unsurprisingly, this is slightly graphic.
Qaddafi Update
At least one more account has emerged on al Jazeera, which only muddies the picture further. Qaddafi definitely appears dead, either from:
a) (via Reuters and al Jazeera) Shot by NTC forces during the final offensive against Sirte, either from wounds to the leg or to the head;
b) (via Reuters) Wounded in a NATO airstrike as his convoy tried to flee Sirte; (Note: Abdel Majid Mlegta is apparently the same source for these conflicting accounts); or
c) (via Reuters) Found by anti-Qaddafi fighters in a hole, saying "Don't shoot, don't shoot" to the men who grabbed him, and then somehow was wounded and killed.
a) (via Reuters and al Jazeera) Shot by NTC forces during the final offensive against Sirte, either from wounds to the leg or to the head;
b) (via Reuters) Wounded in a NATO airstrike as his convoy tried to flee Sirte; (Note: Abdel Majid Mlegta is apparently the same source for these conflicting accounts); or
c) (via Reuters) Found by anti-Qaddafi fighters in a hole, saying "Don't shoot, don't shoot" to the men who grabbed him, and then somehow was wounded and killed.
Photo of Bloody Qaddafi
This looks authentic, and would appear to verify at least the reports that he was wounded . . .
Qaddafi Killed?
Deposed Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi is alternately being reported as captured or killed this morning.
Libyan TV began reporting over an hour ago that Qaddafi had been arrested near Sirte and had been taken to Misrata.
However, Reuters has subsequently reported that Qaddafi was killed, although the circumstances described in the story are murky and rely entirely upon Libyan sources. They suggest he was either wounded in a NATO airstrike on a fleeing convoy and then captured, or pulled from a spiderhole similar to Saddam Hussein's in 2003. Yet a National Transitional Council official says Qaddafi "was also hit in his head. There was a lot of firing against his group and he died."
More details will follow, to be sure. But for now it seems as if the hunt for Qaddafi has come to an end.
Libyan TV began reporting over an hour ago that Qaddafi had been arrested near Sirte and had been taken to Misrata.
However, Reuters has subsequently reported that Qaddafi was killed, although the circumstances described in the story are murky and rely entirely upon Libyan sources. They suggest he was either wounded in a NATO airstrike on a fleeing convoy and then captured, or pulled from a spiderhole similar to Saddam Hussein's in 2003. Yet a National Transitional Council official says Qaddafi "was also hit in his head. There was a lot of firing against his group and he died."
More details will follow, to be sure. But for now it seems as if the hunt for Qaddafi has come to an end.
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| COL Moammar Gaddafi |
Thursday, September 8, 2011
The Hunt for Qaddafi, Day 15
While a spokesman for the new Tripoli Military Council said Qaddafi is surrounded in the Sahara desert, a spokesmen for the Transitional National Council dismissed the report as a rumor and reiterated the unconfirmed accounts that the deposed dictator was in a convoy moving toward the Niger border.
Given that Anis Aharif, the TMC spokesmen, said that rebel forces were within 60 kilometers (37 miles) of Qaddfi's location, and are just "waiting for the right moment to move in," this claim has to be taken with a grain of salt the size of the Washington Monument. I don't even want to do the math to calculate how many troops it would take to effectively "surround" at 1369 square mile region, but I'd be willing to bet the rebels don't have that many troops total, much less actively pursuing the fugitive tyrant.
Speaking of whom, Qaddafi himself released another audio tape via Syrian television berating his enemies as rats and stray dogs and insisting he was still in Libya to fight on, "but he offered them no clues about where they could find him." Well, that's rather unsporting. Even the villain below was generous enough to provide his arch-enemy with clues to his location and strategy (although, granted, it tended not to work out so well for him . . . )
Given that Anis Aharif, the TMC spokesmen, said that rebel forces were within 60 kilometers (37 miles) of Qaddfi's location, and are just "waiting for the right moment to move in," this claim has to be taken with a grain of salt the size of the Washington Monument. I don't even want to do the math to calculate how many troops it would take to effectively "surround" at 1369 square mile region, but I'd be willing to bet the rebels don't have that many troops total, much less actively pursuing the fugitive tyrant.
Speaking of whom, Qaddafi himself released another audio tape via Syrian television berating his enemies as rats and stray dogs and insisting he was still in Libya to fight on, "but he offered them no clues about where they could find him." Well, that's rather unsporting. Even the villain below was generous enough to provide his arch-enemy with clues to his location and strategy (although, granted, it tended not to work out so well for him . . . )
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| Edward Nigma, a.k.a. "The Riddler," always forgets the first rule of evading manhunts: Providing clues to your location, no matter how elaborate, always backfire. |
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Qaddafi Watch, 9/7 Edition
Reuters quotes Hisham Buhagiar, who is coordinating the Transitional National Council's hunt for Qaddafi, as saying reports indcate he may have been in the region of the southern village of Ghwat, some 300km (186 miles) north of the border with Niger . . . three days ago.
I'm no expert on the Libyan highway system, but if he is travelling by car, as all reports indicate, then it doesn't seem unresasonable for him to make the 186 miles in three days. Even if he is travelling with children who need to stop for the bathroom every hour, or can't resist the Cinnabon just off the highway, it seems possible that he could have made it to the border.
Of course, Qaddafi's spokesmen confidently told Reuters "He is in Libya. He is safe, he is very healthy, in high morale." Of course, Moussa Ibrahim made this statement by telephone from an undisclosed location.
I'm no expert on the Libyan highway system, but if he is travelling by car, as all reports indicate, then it doesn't seem unresasonable for him to make the 186 miles in three days. Even if he is travelling with children who need to stop for the bathroom every hour, or can't resist the Cinnabon just off the highway, it seems possible that he could have made it to the border.
Of course, Qaddafi's spokesmen confidently told Reuters "He is in Libya. He is safe, he is very healthy, in high morale." Of course, Moussa Ibrahim made this statement by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Qaddafi Watch, 9/6 Edition
Apparently, the hunt for Qaddafi isn't going so well. According to the Washington Post, "A chaotic and apparently ill-coordinated effort by rebels to track down Moammar Gaddafi is being led by competing factions of military commanders and bounty hunters, as well as Libyan commandos commissioned by civilian leaders."
This scenario was easily foreseeable. In my recent Guardian piece, I noted that "bounties can even have a counterproductive effect on manhunts" as the hunters attempt to separate actual leads from wild rumors by people seeking to cash in. Subsequently, the Post reports "Scarcely a day goes by without someone claiming to know exactly where Gaddafi is hiding within that triangle. The problem is that they do not always agree with one another." Consequently, two different officials within the Transitional National Council are quoted as citing two different locations for the deposed dictator.
Interestingly, the article also supports two other themes from my book, noting that Qaddafi appears to be avoiding the use of satellite phones that NATO could trace, and that the territory in which he would be travelling through "is so vast that it would be difficult to spot from the air a convoy that could be sheltering Gaddafi."
This scenario was easily foreseeable. In my recent Guardian piece, I noted that "bounties can even have a counterproductive effect on manhunts" as the hunters attempt to separate actual leads from wild rumors by people seeking to cash in. Subsequently, the Post reports "Scarcely a day goes by without someone claiming to know exactly where Gaddafi is hiding within that triangle. The problem is that they do not always agree with one another." Consequently, two different officials within the Transitional National Council are quoted as citing two different locations for the deposed dictator.
Interestingly, the article also supports two other themes from my book, noting that Qaddafi appears to be avoiding the use of satellite phones that NATO could trace, and that the territory in which he would be travelling through "is so vast that it would be difficult to spot from the air a convoy that could be sheltering Gaddafi."
Friday, September 2, 2011
Qaddafi Watch, 9/2 Edition
After being "cornered" in Bani Walid, the Transitional National Council announced yesterday that the wily military genius Colonel Qaddafi has escaped and is now apparently fleeing sought across the Sahara Desert, heading to Niger via the town of Sabha. Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani predicted that Qaddafi "wouldn't remain long in the sprawling garrison town" but would flee another 350 miles into the military-controlled neighbor to the South.
Call me crazy, I'm starting to think the TNC doesn't have as firm a grasp on Qaddafi's whereabouts as they are projecting, although Google's Driving Directions suggest Qaddafi could have made the trip in 12 hours, 38 minutes.
Call me crazy, I'm starting to think the TNC doesn't have as firm a grasp on Qaddafi's whereabouts as they are projecting, although Google's Driving Directions suggest Qaddafi could have made the trip in 12 hours, 38 minutes.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
In Today's Headlines
The AP reports "a new documentary reveals that a last-minute double-check of intelligence before" the Abbottabad raid by a "special 'red-team' of terrorism experts" cast doubts on whether Osama bin Laden was really in the compound, "primarily because they didn't believe he would risk having as many visitors as he did." I don't doubt there is some truth to this, as even the intelligence analysts who discovered the compound only estimated it was eighty-percent likely that bin Laden was there. But given that the Obama administration has lowered the probability estimates before to make the President's decision seem more courageous (which it indisputably was, thereby making their constant lowering of the probability so silly), until these red-teamers go on the record I'll remain slightly skeptical. Either way, "Targeting Bin Laden" airs next Tuesday on The History Channel.
Also, yesterday an official in the Transitional National Council said its fighters had cornered Colonel Moammar Qaddafi in a desert redoubt 150 miles from the capital in Bani Walid and were exhorting him to give up. Qaddafi's son and heir apparent, Seif al-Islam (not to be confused with Yusuf Islam, ne Cat Stevens) immediately denied the claim, saying "Our leadership is fine. We are drinking tea and coffee" somewhere in a Tripoli suburb.
Also, yesterday an official in the Transitional National Council said its fighters had cornered Colonel Moammar Qaddafi in a desert redoubt 150 miles from the capital in Bani Walid and were exhorting him to give up. Qaddafi's son and heir apparent, Seif al-Islam (not to be confused with Yusuf Islam, ne Cat Stevens) immediately denied the claim, saying "Our leadership is fine. We are drinking tea and coffee" somewhere in a Tripoli suburb.
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| Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam: Not on the run from Libyan rebels (as far as we know). |
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
No Wonder They Can't Find Qaddafi!
If they are watching CNN, they are searching way, way, WAY too far to the East!
(For more efficient tracking of the rumors regarding the Qaddafis' whereabouts, see Foreign Policy.com's "All Points Bulletin," which is providing the latest news updates on the fugitive and his inner circle.)
(For more efficient tracking of the rumors regarding the Qaddafis' whereabouts, see Foreign Policy.com's "All Points Bulletin," which is providing the latest news updates on the fugitive and his inner circle.)
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