Thaindian News

Tripoli, Mar 7 (ANI): Leaked secret US diplomatic cables obtained by the whistleblower website ‘Wikileaks’ has raised concern that eastern Libya is being overrun by extremist organisations to root out the 40-year-old Gaddafi regime.

The Telegraph quoted the cables as saying that former jihadi fighters who underwent “religious and ideological training” in Afghanistan, Lebanon and the West Bank in the 1980s have returned to eastern towns in Libya like Benghazi and Derna to propagate their Islamist beliefs.

The former jihadists have reportedly gained strong control over Derna, and conservative imams who have shut down “un-Islamic” social and cultural organisations such as sports leagues, theatres and youth clubs.

According to local sources, the government efforts to “keep the east poor” is responsible for growing extremism in towns like Derna.

One cable sent to Washington in February 2008 reports a conversation with a local businessman, who said that the backstreet mosques in Derna had become commonplaces of “martyrdom operations” discussions.

“By contrast with mosques in Tripoli and elsewhere in the country, where references to jihad are extremely rare, in Benghazi and Derna they are fairly frequent subjects,” The cable said.

“Citing conversations with relatives, xxxxxxxxxxxx said the unemployed, disfranchised young men of eastern Libya ‘have nothing to lose’ and are therefore ‘willing to sacrifice themselves’ for something greater than themselves by engaging in extremism in the name of religion. Their lives mean nothing and they know it, so they seek to give meaning to their existence through their deaths,’” it added.

Another confidential cable sent to Washington from the US embassy in Tripoli in June 2008 had described Derna as a “wellspring” of insurgent fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq.

While “not everyone likes the bearded ones” (a reference to conservative imams), “it’s jihad - it’s our duty, and you’re talking about people who don’t have much else to be proud of,” the cable quoted one of the residents, as saying.

“Referring to actor Bruce Willis’ character in the action picture “Die Hard”, who stubbornly refused to die quietly, he said many young men in Derna viewed resistance against Gaddafi’s regime and against coalition forces in Iraq as an important last act of defiance,” the cable added. (ANI)