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Former Gitmo inmate ‘behind lethal attack’ on US envoy to Libya

Ben Qumu is one of the leaders of Ansar al-Sharia, a Libyan militant Islamist group

Agencies

Posted On Friday, September 21, 2012 at 09:01:57 AM

US intelligence officials believe that a former Guantanamo Bay detainee may have been involved in the attack on the US consulate in Libya last week. Sufyan Ben Qumu is thought to have “led the attack” that killed four Americans, including US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens.

Pakistani demonstrators topple a freight container as they attempt to reach the US embassy in Islamabad on Thursday

He is one of the leaders of Ansar al-Sharia, a Libyan militant Islamist group with a presence in the east of the country. Ben Qumu — who was tied to the financiers of the 9/11 attacks — was released from Guantanamo in 2007 by President George W Bush and returned to native Libya.
 
The revelation of his involvement came as a top US official called the September 11 assault on the American embassy a “terrorist attack”. Until now, officials had been describing the incident, triggered by an anti-Islamic film made in the US, as a “spontaneous” act. “I would say yes.


They were killed in the course of a terrorist attack,” Matthew Olsen, the director of US National Counterterrorism Center, told lawmakers.

But he immediately qualified that statement. “The best information we have now, the facts that we have now indicate that this was an opportunistic attack on our embassy,” he said.

But Fox News claimed that Ben Qumu was involved in the attack. After returning to Libya, he formed an armed group in the wake of last year’s uprising against Col Muammar Gadaffi. US officials had earlier said that they believe there were communications between al-Qaeda and Ansar on the day of the attack.


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