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| Africa North |
| "Islamic state" in Libya |
| 2011-02-24 |
| [Al Arabiya] Meanwhile Libya's deputy foreign minister told E.U. ambassadors in Tripoli al-Qaeda has set up an Islamic emirate in Derna, in eastern Libya, headed by a former U.S. prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, However, The infamous However... residents in the city have told news hounds there is no substance to these rumors, which they claim the Libyan government is sowing to "scare Europe." "Al-Qaeda has established an emirate in Derna led by Abdelkarim al-Hasadi, a former Guantanamo detainee," Khaled Khaim said. "They have an FM radio station and have begun to impose the burqa" (head-to-toe covering for women) and have "executed people who refuse to cooperate with them." Khaim said Hasadi has a lieutenant, "also a member of al-Qaeda and named Kheirallah Baraassi" in al-Baida. Derna is the capital of a province by the same name in the region of Cyrenaica, some 1,250 kilometers (775 miles) east of Libya's capital Tripoli. Al-Baida lies about 100 kilometers west of Derna. Earlier, Italian Foreign Minister Francesco Franco Frattini said embattled Libyan leader Qadaffy had lost control of Cyrenaica and shared reports that an Islamic emirate had been declared there. Speaking at a meeting in Rome organized by the Community of Sant'Egidio, a Christian organisation, Frattini said here had been recent proclamations in Cyrenaica that it was now an Islamic emirate and calls to break with the West. "It is a worrying development if radical Islam is only a few hundred kilometers away from the European Union's front door, but nothing can justify the violent death of hundreds of innocent civilians," he added. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 See also PEOPLES DAILY FORUM > AL-QAEDA IN NORTH AFRICA [AQIM = Maghreb]SUPPORT LIBYA UPRISING. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-02-24 02:04 |