Terrorist and extremist groups have taken advantage of the instability in Libya to infiltrate the country and carry out terror attacks or wage war against the “enemies of Islam.” Local security and military authorities in the east and west have combated these groups in recent years, notably in Derna, Benghazi and Sirte. The war on Tripoli, however, was seen as an opportunity by extremists in Syria to move to the North African country to continue their fight.
One such figure is Abou Yaqthan al-Masry, an Egyptian who had joined the ranks of extremists in Syria where he fought for some six years with fellow Egyptians. Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari, however, revealed on Wednesday that the extremist was actually spotted in Tripoli, where he has joined the forces of the Government of National Accord (GNA).
Abou Yaqthan was born Mohammed Naji. He is among other radicals who fled Egypt to Syria in 2013 when Egyptian authorities began cracking down on extremists. He joined one of the terrorist groups that were fighting the Syrian national army. At one point he fought for the former al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra Front and later joined Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Born in Alexandria in 1972, he graduated with a degree in humanities from the al-Azhar University, but was interested in religion and began learning Sharia from extremist clerics. He worked as a teacher for 19 years before leaving Egypt. During this time, Naji established a center for the memorization of the Quran and an organization dedicated to families and orphans and teaching Sharia. It was through these organizations that he was able to influence a large segment of youths on extremist ideology that encouraged rising up against rulers.
With the crackdown on extremists in 2013, Naji fled to Syria, leaving behind three children, to fight against the regime forces of Bashar Assad. He took on the name of Abou Yaqthan and appeared in many videos posted by terrorist groups where he vowed to fight against the “dictator Bashar”.
The instability in Libya attracted several Egyptian extremists, most notorious of whom was Hisham al-Ashmawy who was detained by the LNA in 2018, handed over to Egypt last year and executed by authorities on Monday after he was convicted of 14 terrorism charges.
Another Egyptian terrorist, Omar Rifai Srour, was killed by the LNA in Derna. His wife, Mariam, and three children remained in Libya after his death. In announcing al-Ashmawy’s arrest, Mismari revealed that Mariam and her children were with him at the time. She confirmed Srour’s death in fighting in Derna.
Srour rose to prominence in wake of the January 25, 2011 revolution and after the Muslim Brotherhood group briefly assumed rule. The Brotherhood has since been banned as a terrorist organization by Cairo. In 2013, authorities demanded Srour’s arrest over his connection to the Nasr city case.
He fled Libya after the emergence of differences between the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis leaderships in Sinai. He joined the Shura Council of Mujahideen in Derna radical group and took on the name of Abou Abdullah. He remained in Derna until his killing in an LNA airstrike.
A spokesman for a militia in Tripoli questioned the claims that Abou Yaqthan was in Libya. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that some had previously alleged that ISIS leader Abou Bakr al-Baghdadi was fighting Tripoli, but it later turned out that he was in Syria where he was killed in a US raid last year.
