PICTURED: LIBYAN ISLAMIST REBELS POSE WITH PLANES SEIZED FROM TRIPOLI AIRPORT AS U. S. OFFICIALS WARN THEY COULD BE USED TO CARRY OUT TERRORISTS ATTACK ON 9/11 ANNIVERSARY

Pictured: Libyan Islamist rebels pose with planes seized from Tripoli airport as U.S. officials warn they could be used to carry out terrorist attack on 9/11 anniversary

Libyan terrorists have posted pictures of themselves online posing with some of the aeroplanes taken from Tripoli airport after fighters seized it last month.

Soldiers from the group Libyan Dawn can be seen climbing on to the wings of commercial jets while smiling and waving for the camera.

U.S. officials fear that these aeroplanes could now be used to carry out 9/11-style attacks in the region on the anniversary of the tragedy this month.

A total of 11 commercial jets from state-owned carriers Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways went missing in August after militants from the so-called ‘masked men brigade’ overran the airport.

Islamists from the rebel group Libyan Dawn have posed with aeroplanes seized from Tripoli Airport last month

Authorities say 11 aircraft taken from Tripoli airport could now be used in terror attacks in the region

In pictures posted online Jihadi soldiers can be seen clambering over aircraft at Tripoli airport. At least 11 planes went missing after the airport fell at the end of last month

Tripoli airport was left as little more than a smouldering ruin after rebels seized control of it in August

Officials have been warning for some time about the deteriorating situation in Libya, which was controlled by dictator Muammar Gaddaffi until he was killed in October 2011.

‘There are a number of commercial airliners in Libya that are missing,’ one official told the Washington Free-Beacon. ‘We found out on September 11 what can happen with hijacked planes.’

September 11 not only marks the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center but it will also be the second anniversary of the  raid of the U.S. Ambassador’s compound in Benghazi, Libya.

Four Americans were killed in the attack, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Ansar al-Shariah, the group Washington holds responsible for the attack, have also seized parts of the Libyan capital and are known to work with terrorists from ISIS.

However they are not thought to be working with fighters from Libyan Dawn, as they are an Al-Qaeda affiliated group.

The inside of the main building at Tripoli airport gutted by fire following an attack by Islamist militants

Images posted on Twitter show a fire raging inside one of the terminal buildings as militants attacked

Militias which once fought to oust Muammar Gaddaffi from power in 2011 are now warring between themselves for control of the volatile country

Libyan Dawn, an Al-Qaeda affiliated group, are now in control of part of Tripoli, as are Ansar al-Shariah, the group held responsible for the 2012 attack on the US embassy in Libya

Tripoli International Airport was being run by two anti-Islamist militias and had been closed since mid-July when it was taken over at the end of August by the group Libyan Dawn.

Pictures show the aftermath of the firefight, with planes completely or partially blasted and several littered with bullet holes.

Tripoli is witnessing one of its worst spasms of violence since Gaddaffi left power. The militias, many of which originate from rebel forces that fought Gaddaffi, became powerful players in post-war Libya, filling a void left by weak police and a shattered army.

Successive governments have put militias on their payroll in return for maintaining order, but rivalries over control and resources have led to fierce fighting among them and posed a constant challenge to the central government and a hoped-for transition to democracy.

On Sunday,  the Libyan government announced that they had lost control of the capital.

Ansar al-Sharia has ties to the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), the Syrian group which today released the filmed beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff – the second recorded execution of a U.S. hostage by the group.

Fighters from Al-Qaeda affiliated group Libyan Dawn pose on top of a heavily armoured truck as Tripoli Airport burns in the background following fighting there last month

Fears: Nearly a dozen commercial planes are missing in Libya after a radical Islamic group overtook the international airport in the capital of Tripoli late last month.

Aftermath: Tripoli International Airport was overtaken by the group Libyan Dawn last month and now 11 aircraft for Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways are now missing. Above, a Libyan Airlines plane damaged in the battle, pictured on August 26

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Moroccan military expert Abderrahmane Mekkaoui told Al Jazeera television after the airport attack that the planes had been taken by another Islamic group, the Masked Men Brigade.

Mekkaoui said there is ‘credible intelligence’ that the Masked Men Brigade ‘is plotting to use the planes in attacks on the Maghreb state’ on the 9/11 anniversary.

Sebastian Gorka, a counterterrorism expert, told the Free-Beacon that the planes could be used in two ways to strike North Africa or even as far as the oil fields of Saudi Arabia.

‘The first would be how commercial airliners were used on Sept 11, 2001, literally turning an innocent mode of mass transit into a super-high precision guided missile of immense potency,’ Gorka, the Maj Gen Charles Horner chair at the Marine Corps University, said.


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‘The second tactic could be to use the airframe with its civilian markings as a tool of deception to insert a full payload of armed terrorists into a locale that otherwise is always open to commercial carriers,’ he added.

U.S. officials have not publicly confirmed the eleven planes’ disappearance, but are reportedly working to track them down.

Since the overthrow of previous dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has descended into turmoil and officials fear it may become another safe haven for terrorists, like Syria.  

Egypt’s military government is currently looking into intervening in the country to restore order.

The U.S. is taking a more conservative role in the country, but Secretary of State John Kerry said last week that he would be delivering Apache attack helicopters to Egypt.