In Libya: Rebel Strongholds Now, al Qaeda Wellspring Then

March 31, 2011 — -- Less than four years before Libya's popular opposition movement took up arms and revolted against Moammar Gadhafi with enthusiastic U.S. backing, anti-Gadhafi fighters chose another tactic to hit back at the hated dictator: they joined al Qaeda and tried to kill American soldiers in Iraq, according to U.S. documents.

In 2007 the U.S. Department of Defense snatched more than 600 records of al Qaeda's foreign fighters in Iraq and discovered nearly a fifth of the foreigners were from Libya, according to a report by West Point's Combating Terrorism Center released later that year. Within those records, the total put Libya second only to Saudi Arabia in total fighters and "far and away" the largest provider of foreign fighters per capita to the terrorist organization.

Almost all of the Libyan fighters hailed from the east -- cities like Benghazi, effectively the current opposition headquarters; Ajdabiya, which was the site of intense fighting overnight; and Derna, a city currently held by the rebels.

"The Libyan pipeline to Iraq," the report says, "is firmly established."

The report ties the surge of Libyan recruits to a formal pledge of allegiance to al Qaeda by a major anti-Gadhafi group in 2007.

At the time of the report's release, the U.S. and Gadhafi were enjoying a relative resurgence in diplomatic relations following Gadhafi's promise in 2003 to abandon the country's weapons of mass destruction program. The newfound cordiality convinced anti-Gadhafi groups they could fire back at Gadhafi by unleashing violent attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq, according to a leaked 2008 State Department cable.

"It was 'well-known' that a large number of suicide bombers (invariably described as 'martyrs') and foreign fighters in Iraq hailed from Derna," the cable says, describing a conversation a U.S. embassy official had with locals in Derna. "There was a strong perception, [one local] said, that the U.S. had decided in the wake of [Gadhafi's] decision to abandon WMD aspirations and renounce terrorism to support the regime to secure counter-terrorism cooperation and ensure continued oil and natural gas production.

"Many easterners feared the U.S. would not allow [the] regime to fall and therefore viewed direct confrontation with the [Government of Libya] in the near-term as a fool's errand. At the same time, sending young Libyans to fight in Iraq was 'an embarrassment' to [Gadhafi]," says the cable, posted on the website WikiLeaks. "Fighting against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq represented a way for frustrated young radicals to strike a blow against both [Gadhafi] and against his perceived American backers."