Saudi Arabia and Indonesia call for immediate end to Gaza catastrophe Private sector companies sign pacts worth $27 billion during visit of President Prabowo    Prince Faisal and Marco Rubio discuss over phone regional situation    Saudi Arabia and Indonesia agree to bolster bilateral ties Crown Prince and President Subianto chair first meeting of Saudi-Indonesian Supreme Coordination Council    Number of Sakani platform users exceeds 4.6 million by first half of 2025    International visitors spend nearly SR50 billion in Saudi Arabia during 1Q 2025    Saudi Arabia condemns calls for imposing Israeli sovereignty over occupied West Bank    Lacazette joins NEOM SC as Saudi Pro League newcomers boost attack with French star    Al Hilal sign Abderrazak Hamdallah on loan for Club World Cup push    Trump says Israel has agreed on terms for 60-day ceasefire in Gaza    New evidence suggests Russian forces shot down Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243    Iran's president halts cooperation with UN nuclear watchdog, reports say    Commerce Ministry recalls over 88,000 Anker portable chargers over fire risk    Elm, One sign MoU to enhance strategic partnership and support local content in communications and marketing sector    BTS are back: K-pop band confirm new album and tour    Saudi FM receives message from Iranian counterpart    Inzaghi hails 'historic' Al Hilal win over Man City: We climbed a mountain with no oxygen    Michelin Guide launches in Saudi Arabia with phased rollout in 2025    Al Hilal stun Manchester City in seven-goal thriller to reach Club World Cup quarterfinals    'How fragile we are': Roskilde Festival tragedy remembered 25 years on    Historic Jeddah's visual identity re-imagined through global art installations at Al-Arbaeen Lagoon    Sholay: Bollywood epic roars back to big screen after 50 years with new ending    Ministry launches online booking for slaughterhouses on eve of Eid Al-Adha    Shah Rukh Khan makes Met Gala debut in Sabyasachi    Pakistani star's Bollywood return excites fans and riles far right    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



After UK, Egypt attacks, Libya seen as militants' haven
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 30 - 05 - 2017

The Libya connection in the May 22 Manchester concert suicide bombing and Friday's attack on Christians in Egypt has shone a light on the threat posed by militant groups that have taken advantage of lawlessness in the troubled North African nation to put down roots, recruit fighters and export terrorists to cause death and carnage elsewhere.
Libya has been embroiled in violence since a 2011 uprising toppled and killed Moammar Gaddafi. Vast and oil-rich, Libya currently has rival administrations, an army led by a Gaddafi-era general as well as powerful militias that compete for territory, resources and political leverage.
At the peak of its power in Libya, the Daesh (the so-called IS) group controlled a 160-kilometer (100-mile) stretch of Libyan coastline and boasted between 2,000 and 5,000 fighters, many of them from Egypt and Tunisia.
It is that Libya that the alleged Manchester bomber, 22-year-old British citizen Salman Abedi, found when he and his family moved back from Britain after Gaddafi's ouster in 2011.
Monday's bombing left 22 dead, including an 8-year-old girl, and was claimed by IS. Abedi's brother Hashim has been taken into custody in Tripoli and, according to Libyan authorities, has confessed that he and Salman were IS members.
In Egypt, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi sent his fighter-jets to bomb militant positions in eastern Libya just hours after IS fighters shot dead 29 Christians on their way to a remote desert monastery. The military said the attackers were trained in Libya.
Egypt also has long complained that weapons smuggled across the porous desert border with Libya have reached militants operating on its soil. It also has claimed that militants who bombed three Christian churches since December received military training in IS bases in Libya.
Hundreds of Libyan youths answered the call to militancy in the 1980s, traveling to Afghanistan to fight against the Russians.
After Gaddafi's fall, veteran terrorists, Al-Qaeda and sympathizers formed militias that filled the post-Gaddafi power vacuum. Libya's present woes are rooted in the failure of the very first transitional government to dismantle those militias and integrate them into a national army. Instead, they carved up Libya into fiefdoms.
WHERE ARE THE MILITANTS NOW?
DERNA:
The eastern Libyan city, where militant positions were targeted by Egyptian warplanes on Friday, has historically been a bastion of radical groups. Extremists made the city their stronghold in the 1980s and 1990s, protected by the rugged terrain of the surrounding Green Mountain range. It was the main source of Libyan terrorists for the insurgency in Iraq. Entire brigades of Derna natives are known to be fighting in Syria's civil war.
During the 2011 uprising, residents formed the "Abusaleem Martyrs" brigade to fight Gaddafi loyalists. It proved to be one of the most effective rebel outfits. Its ranks soon later swelled and its fighters seized the city, setting up the Derna Mujahideen Shura Council to replace the local government.
The Daesh group's Libyan affiliate had a robust presence in Darna, but the IS faction eventually fell out with the council and was driven out. The IS fighters relocated to the coastal city of Sirte and Darna remains to this day under the control of the Mujahideen Shura Council.
BENGHAZI:
Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, was the first to fall under the influence of extremist militias. Many of those militias were formed to fight the Gaddafi regime in 2011 and were led by radicals, widely viewed as experienced and motivated.
Perhaps the most notorious of the Benghazi militias is Ansar Al-Sharia, blamed for the killings of hundreds of former Libyan soldiers and for the death of the US ambassador in 2012.
For more than two years, the so-called Libyan National Army led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter has battled an alliance of Benghazi's militias. His forces have managed to secure most of the city, except for pockets of a seaside neighborhood, heavily fortified and surrounded by fields of land mines.
SIRTE:
Sirte was where Gaddafi and his loyalists made a last stand in the 2011 civil war. The city, Gaddafi's hometown, was almost completely destroyed in the fighting. Furious over the city's loyalty to Gaddafi, anti-government rebels punished the city's residents with extrajudicial killings and revenge attacks.
In 2013, Sirte fell under the control of Ansar Al-Sharia, which made alliances with local tribes and an uneasy truce with other militias and the small number of remaining army troops. The group took over a sprawling former Gaddafi compound and boasted its own TV and radio station. IS also slowly infiltrated the city as fighters from countries like Mali, Tunisia, Egypt and Syria moved in and later declared Sirte an IS ‘emirate'.
Last year, militiamen from Misrata and other localities in western Libya, acting with the support of a UN-backed government in Tripoli, waged a protracted and bloody campaign to drive IS militants from Sirte. When fighting stalled, the government sought support from the United States, which responded with airstrikes that sped up the collapse of IS in the city.
IS was finally defeated in Sirte and the fighters who survived the carnage fled to the vast deserts to the south.
SEBRATHA:
Sebratha has earned a reputation as a small but tenacious stronghold of radicals, something that made it easier for IS militants to find a foothold there and spawned a lucrative business in human trafficking to Europe. The city is the main IS gateway due to its location near the Tunisian border. The jumble of various militias have helped IS keep a low profile in the city, but a 2016 US airstrike that killed about 40 of the group's operatives highlighted their presence in Sebratha. — AP


Clic here to read the story from its source.