US officials warn ELEVEN missing airplanes in Libya could be used to carry out terrorist attack on 9/11 anniversary
Eleven commercial airlines are missing after Tripoli International
Airport was taken over by Islamist rebels late last month in Libya.
U.S. officials reportedly fear the airplanes will be used to carry out
9/11-style terrorist attacks for the thirteenth anniversary in a little
more than a week. September 11 also marks the second anniversary of the
raid on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya which resulted in the
deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
Above, a heavily- damaged planed parked at Tripoli International Airport
after the firefight where the eleven planes went missing. The World
Trade Center towers in New York after the September 11, 2001 attacks
pictured smoking in inset.Officials warn that ELEVEN missing planes seized by Islamist rebels in Libya could be used to carry out terrorist attack on 9/11 anniversary
- Eleven planes went missing from Tripoli International Airport, after it was overtaken by an Islamic rebel group late last month
- U.S. officials are reportedly warning that the planes could be used to carry out terrorist attacks for the anniversary of September 11
U.S.
officials fear Islamic militants have stolen nearly a dozen commercial
planes in Libya which could be used to carry out 9/11-style terrorist
attacks in the region.
Eleven
commercial jets operated by two state-owned airlines went missing last
month, after militant group Libyan Dawn overtook the international
airport in the capital city of Tripoli.
In
the past two weeks, the U.S. government has been issuing warnings about
the deteriorating state in Libya, drawing attention to the fact that
the planes could be used in attacks to mark the anniversary of 9/11
later this month, sources who read the briefs told the Washington Free-Beacon.
'There
are a number of commercial airliners in Libya that are missing,' one
official told the Free-Beacon. 'We found out on September 11 what can
happen with hijacked planes.'
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Fears: Nearly a dozen commercial
planes are missing in Libya after a radical Islamic group overtook the
international airport in the capital of Tripoli late last month.
Anniversary: U.S. officials are
reportedly concerned the stolen airplanes will be used to carry out
9/11-style attacks in North Africa or the Middle East. The 11th also
marks the second anniversary of the raid on the U.S. compound in
Benghazi, Libya which resulted in the deaths of four Americans. Above, a
view of the World Trade Center Towers in New York, after they were hit
by two commercial airplanes on September 11, 2001
September
11 not only marks the anniversary of the al-Qaeda organized attacks on
the World Trade Center in New York and Pentagon in Washington, DC - but
it will also be the second anniversary of the Islamic militant-led raid
of the U.S. Ambassador's compound in Benghazi, Libya.
Four Americans were killed in the attack, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
Tripoli
International Airport was being run by two anti-Islamist militias and
had been closed since mid-July when it was taken over at the end of
August by the group Libyan Dawn. Pictures show the aftermath of the
firefight, with planes completely or partially blasted and several
littered with bullet holes.
Aftermath: Tripoli International
Airport was overtaken by the group Libyan Dawn last month and now 11
aircraft for Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways are now missing.
Above, a Libyan Airlines plane damaged in the battle, pictured on August
26
On
Sunday, the Libyan government announced that they had lost control of
the capital to competing militias including the radical Islamic groups
Ansar al Sharia and Libyan Dawn. Ansar al Sharia has ties to the Islamic
State (also known as ISIS), the Syrian group which today released the
filmed beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff - the second
recorded execution of a U.S. hostage by the group.
Moroccan
military expert Abderrahmane Mekkaoui told Al Jazeera television after
the airport attack that the planes had been taken by another Islamic
group, the Masked Men Brigade.
Strike again? A Moroccan military
expert believes Islamic group The Masked Men Brigade are in control of
the 11 missing airplanes
Victim: Ambassador Christoper Stevens
(pictured above) was one of four Americans killed in the September 11,
2012 attack in Benghazi
Mekkaoui
said there is 'credible intelligence' that the Masked Men Brigade 'is
plotting to use the planes in attacks on the Maghreb state' on the 9/11
anniversary.
Sebastian
Gorka, a counterterrorism expert, told the Free-Beacon that the planes
could be used in two ways to strike North Africa or even as far as the
oil fields of Saudi Arabia.
'The
first would be how commercial airliners were used on Sept 11, 2001,
literally turning an innocent mode of mass transit into a super-high
precision guided missile of immense potency,' Gorka, the Maj Gen Charles
Horner chair at the Marine Corps University, said.
'The
second tactic could be to use the airframe with its civilian markings as
a tool of deception to insert a full payload of armed terrorists into a
locale that otherwise is always open to commercial carriers,' he added.
U.S. officials have not publicly confirmed the eleven planes' disappearance, but are reportedly working to track them down.
Since
the overthrow of previous dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has descended
into turmoil and officials fear it may become another safe haven for
terrorists, like Syria.
Egypt's military government is currently looking into intervening in the country to restore order.
The
U.S. is taking a more conservative role in the country, but Secretary
of State John Kerry said last week that he would be delivering Apache
attack helicopters to Egypt.
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