Libyan Islamists go to Gaza to fight with the Palestinian Jihad Islami, bringing with them advanced Grad multiple missile launchers supplied by Qatar and the UAE and sold to Palestinian extremists. A thriving new weapons market with a price list rises in the W. Libyan town of Zintan.

Muammar Qaddafi's eldest son Saif al-Islam, on the run across Africa since his father's death, is weighing the options for his survival with the Qaddafi fortune in hand. He may decide to take his chances on an International Court trial and meanwhile stay safe in an ICC cell to work on his case, provided he can keep control of the fortune.  Alternatively, he may throw himself on the mercy of unstable African dictators and rely on mercenaries to protect him from Libyan rebel vengeance. 

Muammar Qaddafi never trusted his eldest son Saif al Islam and cut him out in favor of his younger brother Mutassim as heir apparent. It was Saif who persuaded his father he would be safer in Sirte than in his desert sanctuary. But when Qaddafi was run to ground, ...

How did Muammar Qaddafi's oldest son manage to survive his father on the fateful Thursday, Oct. 20?  Both were in the same convoy fleeing Sirte and bombed.  This question is addressed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly in its latest issue out Friday. It also goes back in time and describes how Saif clawed his way back to Tripoli from the exile imposed on him by the late dictator.  Qaddafi never trusted him or appointed him heir apparent.

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Behind the grisly images of Muammar Qaddafi's last moments on Thursday, Oct. 20, a quiet contest is afoot between the US and at least two NATO allies, France and Germany, over the credit for his termination and the ending of the alliance's military role in Libya. The episode demonstrated that in the Middle East and North Africa, the Western allies have no compunctions about terminating dictatorships abruptly nor about liberated societies shifting to fundamentalist Islamic regimes committed to Sharia law.

Once the fact of Muammar Qaddafi's abrupt demise on Thursday, Oct. 20, is absorbed, Libya will be left with the same power struggle - with the added horror of blood revenge pursued by his loyalists. debkafile's military sources report mounting indications that a NATO special forces unit – although of which nation is unknown – located and captured Muammar Qaddafi in the Sirte area, shot him in both legs and handed him over to a Misrata militia. NATO can now end its Libya mission.

Libya may well be plunged in even bloodier strife after Muammar Qaddafi's passing. The meddling foreign hands backing rival individuals, militias and tribes will only exacerbate the divisions and animosities riddling the interim government of the NTC and the country at large.

The bid to replace toppled Arab regimes with pro-Western Arab democracies was a complete flop, the US and NATO intelligence chiefs meeting secretly in the third week of September agreed. In Libya, in particular the NATO operation on the side of the rebels opened the door for elements identified ...

Away from the optimistic hype surrounding the "Arab Spring" – especially in Libya - and the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, the coming DEBKA-Net-Weekly out Friday reveals how Western intelligence chiefs secretly sized up the consequences of both at their first conference in ten months.
Their outlook was far from rosy. The West is nowhere near its goals in the Arab world and the war on al Qaeda faces big obstacles in new places.
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The tip-off which enabled two Hellfire missiles fired by US drones to locate and kill the US-born Anwar al-Awkali reached US intelligence as a result of a power struggle within Al Qaeda's leadership in Yemen. Killed too was a second US-born al Qaeda operative. debkafile's counter-terror sources disclose that the internal strife was sharpened by the recent arrival in Yemen of the new Al Qaeda leader Ayman Zuwahiri, who determined to purge AQAP ranks of its American element ahead of his next plans.

Muammar Qaddafi and his sons have raised a new army of 12,000 soldiers - all fighters of loyal Touareg tribes of the Sahara, debkafile’s military sources report.

Saturday, Sept. 24, Libyan rebel troops reportedly clashed with his diehards after entering the town of Sirte from the west. Two thousand kilometers to the south, in Niger, the ousted Libyan ruler won a guarantee of protection and alliance from the Touareg tribal council and their declaration of war on his enemies.

If Qaddafi can send large convoys across 900 kilometers of Libyan highway to Niger undisturbed, he is demonstrably in control of most parts of the country. As long as he alive and at large, NATO and the rebels cannot hope to extend their control beyond Tripoli and Benghazi, especially ...

Former Al Qaeda adherent Abdel-Hakim Belhaj is groomed by the US and other NATO allies as future ruler of Libya. They have cast him as the role model of the new Islamist elite "converted to democracy" for future government in Egypt, Tunisia and other countries targeted by the Arabian Spring.

In a world exclusive, debkafile's intelligence sources reveal that Muammar Qaddafi, two of his sons and several thousand fighters have gone to ground at Targan. This dot on the vast Saharan map lies several hundred kilometers southwest of the remote desert town of Jiffra which, too, is more than 1,500 kilometers from rebel-held Tripoli. At Sirte and in a large enclave between this town and Tripoli, his loyalists are still holding out against Libyan rebels.

The lion's share is promised France of Libya's oil reserves with smaller stakes for Britain, Italy and Qatar. But the rebels may be counting their chickens too fast. First, the war is not yet won and the promises may stay on paper and second, only the US has the ...

Two CIA agents, one working undercover, were instrumental in opening the doors of Tripoli to the rebels. One was a close Qaddafi confidant called Mahmud Bin Juma'a, the second Khalifa Hafter, spent 25 year in America and is marked for high office.

On Wednesday, Aug. 31, the Obama administration admitted that former al Qaeda extremists who fought US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan were part of the rebel push to capture Tripoli. Further highlighting Al Qaeda's importance, Muammar Qaddafi instructed his son Saadi to contact self-styled Tripoli commander Abd Al-Hakim Belhadj, one of the a/m extremists, to discuss ways of ending the war. Qaddafi would have to follow in the West's footsteps and work with al Qaeda supporters if he plans guerrilla warfare against the rebels, the US and NATO.

Members of the Al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group – LIFG, are in control of the former strongholds of Muammar Qaddafi captured by Libyan rebels last Sunday, Aug. 21, debkafile reports from Libyan sources. Their chief Abd Al-Hakim Belhadj, an al Qaeda veteran from Afghanistan, now calls himself "Commander of the Tripoli Military Council." A US source confirms that NATO's British and French special forces opened Tripoli's door to the rebels. Now, the LIFG is unlikely to relinquish power to the NTC.

NATO, Britain and France are too broke to finish the job the started in Libya. The Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council is ready to provide financing but wants a NATO military arm for overthrowing the Assad regime in Syria and promoting its other interests. The Obama administration welcomes the hook-up to relieve ...

Muammar Qaddafi's ouster has opened Tripoli's door to al Qaeda, a covert component of which is harbored by the rebel NTC. The jihads are not averse to playing both sides of the Libyan dividing in hooking up with Qaddafi too. This will depend on AQIM's broader interests in North ...