Abu Hamed al-Libi (18 October 1967 – 2 July 2009), born Shabaan Hussein, was a member of al-Qaeda from Libya.
Biography[]
Shabaan Hussein was born to a Sunni Muslim family in Tarhunah, Tripolitania, Libya. Hussein joined the Libyan Army during the Libyan-Chadian War, and gained some combat experience from 1985 to 1987. After serving two years there, he headed to Afghanistan to join the Mujahideen, where he fought against the Soviet Union until 1989, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992, and the Northern Alliance from 1992 to 2001. Taking on the alias of "Abu Hamed al-Libi", he was trained in the use of firearms in a training camp in Kunar Province by al-Qaeda. al-Libi was given training with bombs as well, and he designed several bombs for the terrorist group.
In 2001, al-Libi was one of the al-Qaeda members who remained in Afghanistan to kill some US Army soldiers that were invading in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks. He later fled to Issori in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas province of Pakistan, where he was given sanctuary by the government in exchange for not attacking Pakistan. He had links to al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent and the Indian Mujahideen, to whom he sold guns and bombs.
In 2009, al-Libi was taken out in a CIA drone strike, killing him along with 23 other people at a meeting of al-Qaeda and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants. al-Libi's death was confirmed by AQIS spokesman Hafiz Ali, who declared that he had been martyred by American warplanes.