Abd al-Hakim Balhaj

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Abd al-Hakim Balhaj ( Arabic عبد الحكيم بالحاج; * May 1, 1966 in Tripoli ), also known under the battle name Abu Abdullah as-Sadiq , is a Libyan politician, former leader of the terrorist organization Libyan Islamic Combat Group , former commander of the Libyan military council in Tripoli, and diplomat of the internationally unrecognized counter-government in the Second Libyan civil war .

Early Afghanistan time

After completing his university education as a civil engineer, he traveled to Afghanistan via Saudi Arabia in 1988 , where he joined the Mujahideen in the armed struggle against the Soviet Army . In 1989 he and other Libyan colleagues founded the Libyan Islamic Combat Group in Afghanistan, which was then commanded by Abu Laith al-Liby . After expulsion by the Pakistani authorities, the LIK activists relocated to Sudan and Libya in the early 1990s.

Return to Libya

In 1993, in Benghazi , East Libya , he began recruiting volunteers to overthrow the Qaddafi regime . These should join the revolutionary committees of the regime and thus subvert the system from within. However, the coup plans were thwarted with the discovery and subsequent bombing of an insurgent training camp under the command of renegade officer Shuhaibi Saleh in 1995 in the mountains in the northeast of the country. After three unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Qaddafi, Balhaj's Vice Sheikh Salah Fathi Sulaiman was killed in September 1997 in a skirmish with government troops near Darna. A series of arrests followed, in which a total of 1,800 supporters were arrested. Like most of the LIK activists, Balhaj fled Libya in the late 1990s and lived in several Muslim countries in the years that followed, including Pakistan , Turkey , Sudan and Malaysia .

In 2003 he was arrested by the CIA on suspicion of membership in al-Qaʿida in Malaysia and, after interrogations in Thailand and Hong Kong, handed over to the Libyan secret service in 2004. After six years of internment in the Tripoli Abu Salim Prison , he was released on March 23, 2010, along with 9 other LIK leaders. The release was preceded by two years of discussions between representatives of the LIK and the regime, including Saif al-Qaddafi . In the course of this, the leaders of the LIK committed themselves to turning away from their previous ideology . In September 2009 a new, more moderate manifesto entitled “Corrective Studies in the Understanding of Jihad, Responsibility and Rulership Towards the People” was published, which brought charges of treason to Balhajj by radical jihadist groups. The holy war against Qaddafi was excluded from it, while it continues to be legitimized in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine . At the time of his release, Balhaj was considered the organization's emir .

Jihadist connections

As a former Afghanistan veteran, emir and LIK chief ideologist, he is credited with various contacts with jihadist groups such as al-Qaʿida , the Taliban and the Egyptian al-Jihad group. In 2007, Aiman ​​az-Zawahiri announced the merger between al-Qaʿida in the Islamic Maghreb and the LIK via an audio message . The LIK itself was placed on the list of international terrorist organizations after the September 11, 2001 attacks . The assassination of Major General Abd al-Fattah Yunis on July 28, 2011, who commanded a special unit to combat the LIK insurgent groups in the 1990s, is attributed to LIK activists. In an interview with France24 on September 1, 2011, Balhajd denied any ties to al-Qa'ida on the basis of contradicting attitudes.

Role in the Libyan civil war

With the beginning of the Libyan Revolution , the LIK was placed under the Libyan National Transitional Council and changed its name to "Libyan Islamic Movement". Balhaj himself was appointed commander of the Tripoli Brigade, which comprised five battalions. As a result of the storming of the Bab al-Aziziya district in Tripoli on August 27, 2011, in which up to 800 LIK fighters subordinate to him were significantly involved, Balhaj was appointed chairman of the military council in Tripoli.

In a video message broadcast on November 22, 2011 , Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi , imprisoned in Sintan , warned of Balhaj. On November 25, he was briefly detained at Tripoli airport by units of the Sintan Brigade. In 2012, he resigned from his post as commander of the Libyan Military Council and began working as a party official of the al-Watan party .

In May 2014, Belhadsch, who has good contacts with the French ambassador in Libya, met the North Africa department of the French Foreign Ministry in Paris and gave an interview to the public broadcaster France 24 .

New civil war 2014

In the new civil war, Balhaj joined the militia alliance Fajr Libiya and has been a diplomat ever since. On the one hand he takes part in the peace dialogue through UNSMIL , on the other hand he was officially received by various government representatives in North Africa. In June 2015, he met representatives of the Algerian government in Algiers .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Libya’s New Generals (II): Conflicting Loyalties. Part II: Abdel Hakim Belhaj: The Conqueror of Bab al-Azizia. In: english.al-akhbar.com. Al-Akhbar English, August 30, 2011, accessed August 14, 2013 .
  2. ^ Dossier - Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG; Al Jama'ah al-Islamiyyah al-Muqatila) . ( Memento of October 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) The Nefa-Foundation, p. 10.
  3. ↑ Abdelhakim Belhaj, le retour d'Al-Qaeda . Liberation, August 26, 2011
  4. ↑ Hamburg Report on the Protection of the Constitution from 2007 (PDF; 2.1 MB) p. 40.
  5. ↑ Le nouveau gouverneur militaire de Tripoli est l'un des fondateurs d'un groupe terroriste islamiste . Opex360, August 26, 2011
  6. ↑ Belhadj, un djihadiste repenti à la tete du Conseil militaire de Tripoli . France24, September 1, 2011
  7. ↑ Tripoli Divided as Rebels Jostle to Fill Power Vacuum . In: The New York Times , August 30, 2011
  8. ↑ Katerina Nikolas: Saif Gaddafi sends warning about Abdel Hakim Belhadj . DigitalJournal.com, November 22, 2011.
  9. ↑ Katerina Nikolas: Libya's Zintan militia briefly detain Abdel Hakim Belhadj . DigitalJournal.com, November 25, 2011.
  10. ↑ Le Libya Abdelhakim Belhadj renoue avec la France . Jeune Afrique , May 19, 2014
  11. ↑ Interview with Islamism expert Alaya Allani. Qantara.de from June 23, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Balhaj, Abd al-Hakim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES عبد الحكيم بالحاج (Arabic); as-Sadiq, Abu Abdullah; Belhaj, Abdelhakim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Libyan commander
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Tripoli