Libya has recently been in a state of political chaos as various militias vie for control following the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. As the government loses its grip on power, there are new fears that the reported theft of some airliners could be utilized to carry out terrorist attacks.
A report in the Washington Free Beacon states that intelligence reports have been distributed within the U.S. government in recent weeks relating to the theft of up to a dozen airliners in Tripoli from the country’s main airport, which was recently seized by a militia.
The fear is that the planes could potentially be used in terrorist attacks, including possibly this week to mark the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
“Islamist militias in Libya took control of nearly a dozen commercial jetliners last month, and western intelligence agencies recently issued a warning that the jets could be used in terrorist attacks across North Africa,” writes the Washington Free Beacon’s senior editor Bill Gertz.
“(U.S. Intelligence is) concerned they could be utilized in a 9/11-style attack… If they don’t use them in suicide attacks, they could also be used to transport some of these Islamist groups to expand their reach,” the report states.
“It seems like the State Department, the Obama administration, is trying to play down these reports, but the people I talked to were fairly concerned about them,” added Gertz, who based his reporting on unnamed sources in the U.S. intelligence community.
The reporter says officials are currently trying to locate the missing jets, but at this point he “doesn’t think the CIA has a full handle” on where all of the aircraft went.
There are a number of airports in the region within close proximity to Tripoli International, so the search is being conducted at these facilities to try to obtain an accurate count of how many aircraft are there.
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