Abdulrahman Aghlio..The fall of the photographer of the massacre of the “Copts of Egypt” in Libya

By: Shaimaa Hefzy

In the western desert, on the border with Egypt, the Libyan security forces recorded a new victory over Daesh. After their success in arresting Hisham Ashmawi, another terrorist, can be considered as the “eye of the camera” in the terrorist organization was killed and he is Abdul Rahman Ali Aghlio.

The Libyan terrorist Abdel Rahman Ali Aghlio, known as Abu Mohammed, became famous after a video clip showing the slaughter of 21 Egyptian Copts seized by the terrorist organization in Libya three years ago.

Agholio was born in 1997 and when he was 15 years old, his family was told that he was missing, and they published his photographs in 2012. But he appeared after he was recruited by the terrorist militias of Misrata and was involved in attacking the city « Bani Walid »Libyan.

According to available information about Aglio, he worked under the command of Abu Omar al-Jazrawi, nicknamed “the governor of Tripoli”, who was killed in 2016 in the Libyan city of Sirte.

Last year, the Libyan Attorney-General, Siddiq al-Sour, arrested an Egyptian photographer who murdered the Egyptian Copts in Libya, which took place behind the Al-Mahary Hotel in Sirte. Confirming that the burial places of the victims were identified, and then the governments of Egypt and Libya handed over the bodies to the families of the victims.

Al-Sour said in previous statements: Most of those involved in the membership of Daesh on the Libyan territory, are not new to terrorism. They are leaders of al Qaeda, founded by Osama bin Laden, and his assistant Ayman al-Zawahri. Some of them managed to infiltrate and escape to Iraq, to join the organization there.

In December 2017, the Libyan Anti-Crime Department published the confessions of a member of an organization called Hisham al-Awakli, known as the dinosaur, who admitted to being one of the individuals involved in the Copts massacre.

According to the dinosaur’s confessions, the crime of slaughtering the Egyptian Copts was filmed under the supervision of Abu Adel Aziz al-Anbari, the head of the photography team, who used cameras and modern equipment brought by a man named Abu Abdullah Ahmad al-Hamali from Turkey via the airport in Tripoli.

According to investigations conducted in Libya, the recruitment of Daesh elements  in Libya, started by the Libyan Hassan al-Salihin Balarj, nicknamed “Abu hbeiba”, who was imprisoned in Iraq in 2005, and returned to Libya in 2012, to establish what is known as the “Tawheed and Jihad” City of Derna.

Tawhid and Jihad joined Daesh and set up Abu Habiba as the emir of the organization’s branch in Libya. According to the investigations, Abu hbeiba received  envoys to Libya in 2014 and took up the position of Emir of Armaments until his death in Sirte in 2016.

Investigations also revealed that the most nationalities that joined Daesh in Libya were Tunisia, Egypt and Sudan, with more than 100 individuals and 50 to 100 people from countries such as Senegal, Gambia, Chad, Niger, Ghana and Eritrea , Mali and Somalia.

The number of people who joined the ranks of Daesh from Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Morocco, Mauritania, Yemen and Algeria ranges from 10 to 50, while the number of those joining the organization from Iraq, America, Syria, Qatar, Nepal, Burundi, France , And Jordan, between 1 and 10 people.

Daesh took control of Sirte in June 2015, and the organization regularly portrayed the city as its main base outside Syria and Iraq. In December 2016, pro-government fighters succeeded in regaining control of the city and ousting the organization’s militants.