Abu Anas al-Libi, the al-Qaeda veteran captured after a 15-year manhunt The US claims to have captured Abu Anas al-Libi - so who is the man they have tried to capture for the past 15 years? When American commandos seized Abu Anas al-Liby in Tripoli on Saturday, a manhunt that had criss-crossed the world for over 15 years finally came to an end. Liby, 49, is accused of being an al-Qaeda veteran, one of the last survivors of the pre-September 11 generation of Osama bin Laden’s followers. Like many radical Islamists of that era, he was granted political asylum in Britain and lived in London in the 1990s. Yet he would later be considered dangerous enough to acquire an American bounty of $5 million on his head. That arose from Liby’s alleged role in the bombing of the US Embassy in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in August 1998. As early as 1993, he travelled to the city with another al-Qaeda figure and conducted “visual and photographic surveillance of the United States Embassy”, according to his indictment. Liby also scouted out other possible targets in Nairobi, including the headquarters of the US Agency for International Development, the Norfolk Hotel and the British High Commission.