Tripoli, 23 February 2014:
Local residents in Derna have denied reports of an RPG attack on the home of former Guantanamo Bay . . .[restrict]detainee and alleged leader of Islamist militia leader Sufian Bin Qumu.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a local source told the Libya Herald that, while there had been sporadic fighting last night near the western entrance to Derna where Ben Qumu lives, there had been no direct attack on his home.
He added that there had been no reported casualties in the fighting.
Derna-born Ben Qumu was held in Guantanamo Bay for six years. In his secret Guantanamo file, which surfaced via Wikileaks in 2011, Ben Qumu was assessed as: “A former member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), a probable member of Al-Qaida, and a member of the North African Extremist Network (NAEN).” The report also stated that the Libyan Government itself considered him to be a “dangerous man with no qualms about committing terrorist acts.”
Ben Qumu was released from Guantanamo in 2007, on condition that he continued to be detained by the Libyan authorities. In 2010, however, he was released from Abu Salim prison as part of an amnesty for anti-regime prisoners. During the revolution he was seen as a prominent figure within Ansar Al-Sharia in Derna. [/restrict]
