ripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Abdul Hakeem Belhaj, one of the most effective commanders among anti-Gadhafi forces in Libya, has seen plenty of combat in his 45 years. A well-built, bearded man with dark, serious eyes, he fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan -- and alongside al Qaeda in the dying days of the Taliban regime.
Now he is commander of the anti-Gadhafi forces in Tripoli, and swears loyalty to the National Transitional Council, describing himself as an "ordinary Libyan" fighting for a common cause.
But there's not much ordinary about Belhaj. As a young man in the late 1980s, he was one of scores of jihadists in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group that went to fight in Afghanistan. His military prowess soon made him a commander among his fellow fighters. After the fall of the Taliban, Belhaj left Afghanistan and was arrested in Malaysia in 2004. After some questioning by the CIA, he was sent back to Libya and jailed.
Belhaj was released from Moammar Gadhafi's notorious Abu Salim jail last year. He and dozens of others of LIFG fighters negotiated with the Gadhafi regime for their freedom -- in return for denouncing al Qaeda and its philosophy of jihad.
The negotiations were led by a former LIFG member in exile, Noman Benotman, and Saif al Islam Gadhafi, one of the sons of the Libyan leader and a man that Belhaj is now hunting.
The Gadhafi regime had jailed hundreds of Islamists, among them fighters of the LIFG who had launched a short-lived insurgency in the 1990s. Many were massacred during a prison revolt in 1996.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/09/02/libya.belhaj.profile/index.html?&hpt=hp_c1

Why didn't he fight Ghadaffi ever since? Before it was the West that was his enemy now he is joining the west against his country. What a diabolical person

Why didn't he fight Ghadaffi ever since? Before it was the West that was his enemy now he is joining the west against his country. What a diabolical person

He fought Ghaddafi. I read an article on it. Ghaddafi had him detained as he was leaving for Malaysia I believe with his wife by the British MI-6 services. The MI-6 actually had this man change from British Airways to Delta so he could be intercepted!! He was then detained and tortured in a [eastern] European prison by CIA agents, then sent to Libya and probably tortured more.

How u can expect that he does not hate the west i do not know. Because they were the ones responsible for his torture. That story may be missing on some details, or incorrect on some, because i did not consult the article this morning, but that's pretty much the scheme of what happened. How he got into Libya in the first place.

Its almost like while the British were detaining him, they were briefing him, preparing him for this situation this year where he would lead the charge against ghaddafi.

Ehn hen! That belhaj man abi?, he isn't the a friend of the west either.Second coming;as the western world made a mistake-frm fry pan to fire.

BlackLibya:


Its almost like while the British were detaining him, they were briefing him, preparing him for this situation this year where he would lead the charge against ghaddafi.

Very possible