Al-Qaida figures said infiltrating Libya

Several senior al-Qaida figures have made their way to Libya, raising fears North Africa could become a new mujahedin center, non-government sources said. The unnamed figures, originally from North Africa, are "very experienced," a source close to Islamist groups in North Africa told the British newspaper The Guardian. The leaders "left camps in Afghanistan's [mountainous northeastern] Kunar province, where they have been based for several years, and traveled back across the Middle East," the source said. "Some got stopped but a few got through." The sources did not identify any figure, nor did they say what the moves meant. A Libyan-born al-Qaida commander in Afghanistan named Abu Yahya al-Libi urged his countrymen in a video March 12 to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi's regime and establish Islamic rule. It is not clear where al-Libi -- who rose to prominence in the terror group after escaping from the U.S. military prison at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan July 10, 2005 -- is currently based. A former CIA analyst described al-Libi in 2008 as "a very charismatic, young, brash rising star within [al-Qaida]." Gadhafi had accused al-Qaida of being behind the movement that ended his rule. The Guardian said the moves might be part of an al-Qaida strategy to exploit the aftermath of North Africa's so-called Arab spring. The al-Qaida leaders who moved to Libya may also be seeking to shift the terrorist organization's center of gravity back to the homelands of the vast majority of its members, the newspaper said. Since the slaying of al-Qaida ideological leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces in Pakistan May 2, CIA missile strikes from drones have killed many other senior al-Qaida commanders. Among those were Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, a Libyan considered the group's top operational planner, killed with his son Aug. 23, and Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born prominent member of the group's branch in Yemen, killed Sept. 30. Right now, fewer than 100 "al-Qaida or al-Qaida-affiliated" militants remain in Afghanistan, with only "a handful" considered a serious threat to the United States and other Western nations, U.S. and British intelligence sources told The Guardian.