Abu Habib al-Libi | |
|---|---|
| أبو حبيب الليبي | |
| Born | Hasan al-Salahayn Salih al-Sha'ari 1975 (age 49–50) |
| Occupation | Senior Islamic State leader |
Hasan al-Salahayn Salih al-Sha'ari (Arabic:حسن الصلاحين صالح الشعري, born 1975), known asAbu Habib al-Libi (Arabic:أبو حبيب الليبي), is aLibyan man who has been a seniorIslamic State leader in bothIraq andLibya.
He was born inDerna, Libya in 1975.[1]
After the2003 invasion of Iraq, he traveled fromLibya toIraq viaSyria to fightcoalition forces. He was a member ofAl-Qaeda in Iraq since at least 2004 and was an associate ofAbu Umar al-Tunisi since then.[2] According to a description given by theUnited States Department of the Treasury, he was personally trained byAbu Musab al-Zarqawi.[citation needed]
He was captured by American forces inAl-Karābilah,Al Anbar Governorate on September 6, 2005. A press release at the time says he admitted to being theimprovised explosive deviceemir of Karabilah, responsible for conducting numerous bombings against Coalition and Iraqi forces.[3][4]
In mid-2012 he was freed from jail inIraq[5] and returned toLibya, where he continued to support IS, starting a branch of IS in Libya in late 2014. He provided Tunisian IS leaderAbu Umar al-Tunisi hundreds of thousands of dollars and dispatched experienced, trusted personnel to aid him between late 2012 and early 2013.
By early 2014, he had given his oath of allegiance to IS leaderAbu Bakr al-Baghdadi and in late 2014 he was leading IS military convoys in Derna, Libya.[6]
On 29 September 2015 he was made subject to sanctions by theUnited States Department of the Treasury. On 29 February 2016 he was sanctioned by theUnited Nations Security Council.[7]
