U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday afternoon that newly-captured al-Qaeda member Abu Anas al-Libi will be brought to justice.
Obama made the remarks at a televised news conference at the White House which focused mainly on the federal government shutdown.
Asked whether the capture of al-Libi, the alleged suspect behind the bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998, complied with international law, Obama dodged the question and went on to stress that the U.S. has "strong evidence" of al- Libi's involvement in planning and helping execute plots that killed hundreds of people, including "a whole lot of Americans."
"And he will be brought to justice," said the president.
The U.S. military conducted an operation Saturday in Libya and captured longtime al-Qaeda member Abu Anas al-Libi.
The Pentagon said the operation was approved by Obama and al- Libi was "lawfully detained under that law of war in a secure location outside of Libya."
However, the U.S. raid has raised concerns of the violation of its sovereignty in Libya. The Libyan government said on Tuesday it has summoned the U.S. ambassador in Tripoli to seek clarification about the capture of a Libyan citizen in an unauthorized military raid on its territory.
Libi, 49, was on the FBI's most wanted list with a bounty of 5 million dollars for over a decade. He has been indicted by a New York court for his alleged role in al-Qaeda's conspiracy of the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, that killed more than 200 people in 1998.
The Pentagon has also confirmed that the U.S. troops were also involved in an operation on Friday in Somalia against a terrorist of the al-Shabaab, which is responsible for the recent attack at a shopping mall in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.
Speaking at the news conference, Obama also vowed to go after regional terror groups, saying that Africa has become one of the places easier for regional terror groups "to hide out" in its vast and sparsely-populated terrains.
"But where you've got active plots and active networks, we're gonna go after them," said Obama. Endi
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