Al-Libi was captured in Tripoli , Libya , on 5 October 2013 by U.S. Army Delta Force operators , with the assistance of FBI agents and CIA officers . He was seized in a pre-dawn raid and removed from Libya . The US Navy 's DEVGRU conducted a simultaneous raid in Somalia targeting the alleged mastermind of the Westgate shopping mall attack in Kenya , possibly to avoid either action sending the other target into hiding . A day after Al-Libi was captured , he was in military custody on the ship USS '' San Antonio '' in the Mediterranean Sea . On 10 February 2014 , a 30 seconds CCTV video showing U.S. commandos capturing al-Libi was published by '' The Washington Post '' . According to strategist and counterinsurgency expert David Kilcullen , the collapse of Ali Zeidan 's government and the ensuing " fragmentation of Libya ... resulted , in part , from the raid al-Libi 's capture "
Westgate shopping mall attack
Westgate shopping mall attack
Abu Anas al-Libi