A Libyan militant leader, wanted by the US, has reportedly been kidnapped. Source: AAP
US special forces have carried out a raid in the Libyan capital to capture a militant leader wanted for his role in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, US officials say.
Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Anas al-Libi, is believed to have returned to Libya during the 2011 civil war that led to the ouster and killing of dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
His brother, Nabih, said al-Libi was parking outside his house early on Saturday after dawn prayers, when three vehicles encircled him, smashed the car's window and seized his gun before grabbing him and fleeing.
The brother said al-Libi's wife saw the kidnapping from her window and described the abductors as foreign-looking armed "commandos".
The Pentagon's chief spokesman George Little said al-Libi "is currently lawfully detained by the US military in a secure location outside of Libya".
He did not disclose further details.
A senior US military official said the raid was carried out by the US army's Delta Force, which has responsibility for counterterrorism operations in north Africa.
The US official said there were no US casualties in the operation.
The official was not authorised to speak publicly and requested anonymity.
Al-Libi is on the FBI's most-wanted list with a $US5 million ($A5.34 million) bounty on his head.
He was indicted by a federal court in the Southern District of New York, for his alleged role in the bombings of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, on August 7, 1998, that killed more than 220 people.
Al-Libi studied electronic and nuclear engineering, graduating from Tripoli University and was an anti-Gaddafi activist.
He is believed to have spent time in Sudan, where Osama bin Laden was based in the early 1990s.
After bin Laden was forced to leave Sudan, al-Libi turned up in Britain in 1995 where he was granted political asylum under unclear circumstances and lived in Manchester.
He was arrested by Scotland Yard in 1999, but released because of lack of evidence and later fled Britain.
His name was included on the FBI's most wanted terrorists list that was introduced shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
There were a number of reports of his arrest, which were later denied by US officials.
In 2007, Human Rights Watch said it believed he was among about two dozen people who may have once been held in secret CIA prisons.
The group said it believed he was held in Sudan, but didn't elaborate, and said his whereabouts were later unknown.
Al-Libi's family returned to Libya a year before the revolt against Gaddafi, under an initiative by Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam who sought to reconcile with militants who renounce violence, a close friend said, refusing to identify himself because of security concerns.
The friend said al-Libi's son was killed during the civil war as rebels marched on the capital, ousting Gaddafi.
His son's name is scribbled as graffiti on the walls of the street where his family resides, in an affluent neighbourhood in Tripoli.
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