Tripoli, 27 May 2013:
The Prime Minister has dismissed as “groundless” the claim by Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou on Saturday that Islamist militants . . .[restrict]who killed 25 people in two coordinated terrorist attacks in Niger on Thursday had come from Libya.
The claims do not “relate to reality,” Ali Zeidan said at a news conference in Brussels to which he flew yesterday for talks with EU and NATO leaders.
“It was Qaddafi who exported terrorism … The new Libya will not tolerate that,” he was quoted by Reuters as saying.
He stated that Libya had in fact strengthened its borders “and we have taken measures not to let anyone go out of Libya or into Libya from Mali”.
He again called on Niger to hand over Saadi Qaddafi who has been given refuge in the country. He accused him and his associates of being responsible for “terrorist acts in the region”.
Algeria has also claimed that Islamist terrorists are based in southern Libya.
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