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Islamic State in Libya

The Islamic State – Libya Province is a militant Islamist group active in Libya under three branches: Fezzan Province (Arabic: ولاية فزان, Wilayah Fizan) in the desert south, Cyrenaica Province (Arabic: ولاية برقة, Wilayah Barqah) in the east, and Tripolitania Province (Arabic: ولاية طرابلس, Wilayah Tarabulus) in the west.[27][28] The branches were formed on 13 November 2014, following pledges of allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by militants in Libya.[29]

Libyan Provinces

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (2014–2019)  (Leader of ISIL)
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (2019–2022)  (Leader of ISIL)
Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (2022–2022)  (Leader of ISIL)
Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi (2022–2023)  (Leader of ISIL)
Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (2023–present) (Leader of ISIL)
Abu Nabil al-Anbari  (Nom de guerre Abul Mughirah al Qahtani)[1][2][3]
Abdul Qader al-Najdi [3][4]
Abdulsalam Darkullah (2023?) [5]

13 November 2014[6][7][8] – present[9][10][11][12]

180-240 (2023)[5]
50 (2022)[13]
3,000–4,000 (2018)[14]
500 (in 2017)[15]
5,000[16][17][18]–10,000 (in 2016)[19]

Background[edit]

Following the 2011 Libyan Civil War, which resulted in the ousting of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and his government, many rebel fighters went to Syria to fight alongside militant groups who were fighting Bashar al-Assad and his loyalists in the Syrian Civil War.[30] In 2012, one group of Libyans fighting in Syria declared the establishment of the Battar Brigade. The Battar Brigade would later pledge loyalty to IS, and fight for it in both Syria and Iraq.[31]


In early 2014, up to 300 Battar Brigade veterans returned to Libya. In Derna, they formed a new faction called the Islamic Youth Shura Council, which began recruiting militants from other local groups. Among those who joined were many members of the Derna branch of Ansar al-Sharia.[31][32] During the next few months, they declared war on anyone in Derna who opposed them, killing judges, civic leaders and other opponents, including local militants who rejected their authority such as the al-Qaeda-allied Abu Salim Martyrs Brigade.[20]


In September 2014, an IS delegation that had been dispatched by the group's leadership arrived in Libya. The representatives included Abu Nabil al Anbari, a senior aide to al-Baghdadi and a veteran of the Iraq conflict,[20] the Saudi Abu Habib al-Jazrawi, and the Yemeni[32] or Saudi[20] Abu al-Baraa el-Azdi, a militant and preacher from Syria.[20][31][33] On 5 October 2014, the Islamic Youth Shura Council-aligned militant factions came together and pledged allegiance to IS. After the pledging ceremony, more than 60 pickup trucks filled with fighters cruised through the city in a victory parade.[32] A second more formal gathering involving a larger array of factions took place on 30 October 2014, where the militants gathered to pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the city square.[32][34]


On 13 November 2014, al-Baghdadi released an audio recording in which he accepted pledges of allegiance from supporters in five countries, including Libya, and announced the expansion of his group to those territories.[35] He went on to announce the creation of three "provinces" (wilayah) in Libya: Wilayah al-Fizan (Fezzan in the desert south), Wilayah al-Barqah (Cyrenaica in the east), and Wilayah al-Tarabulus (Tripolitania in the west).[28][27][36] The three wilayahs in Libya represent statelets.[37]

Foreign fighters[edit]

In Libya, IS heavily relied on foreign volunteers for its fighting forces. IS recruits came from across the Middle East and Africa.[73] Libyan intelligence chiefs claimed in early February 2016, that the Islamic State is recruiting fighters from Africa's poorest nations, including Chad, Mali and Sudan. IS offers generous salaries compared to the average wages in the region. Many of the fighters reach Libya using existing people-smuggling routes used by African migrants heading to Europe.[74] Following the battle of Sirte during which most of IS's foreign forces in Libya were killed,[65] the Libyan branch increasingly recruited Sub-Saharan Africans into its ranks.[75]

Propaganda[edit]

The "Media Office for Cyrenaica Province" has published photos and other material showing buildings with IS insignia, suicide bombers, parades, and pledges of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.[76] A reporter for The New York Times who visited the outskirts of Sirte found that IS had taken over the local radio station, and all four stations on the dial were being used to transmit Islamic sermons.[44]


IS in Libya had threatened to facilitate the arrival of thousands of migrants to destabilize Europe if they are attacked.[77]

In November 2014, IS's Cyrenaica wing claimed it had previously dispatched nine suicide bombers from Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia to carry out attacks against Libyan security forces in and around . CNN reported that several of these attacks seemed to correspond to previously unclaimed suicide bombings, including a twin-attack on a Libyan special forces camp in Benghazi on 23 July 2014 and a 2 October 2014 attack on a military checkpoint near Benina airport.[20]

Benghazi

IS's Cyrenaica Province is the prime suspect in a 12 November 2014 suicide bombing in that killed one and wounded 14, and a bombing outside Labraq air force base in Al-Bayda that killed four, according to a CNN report.[20][80]

Tobruk

On 13 November 2014, bombs exploded near the embassies of Egypt and the UAE in , however no casualties were reported. An IS-linked Twitter account suggested their Tripoli wing was responsible for the attacks, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.[81]

Tripoli

In December 2014, the beheaded bodies of Mohammed Battu and Sirak Qath, human rights activists abducted in on 6 November 2014, were found.[82]

Derna

In January 2015, IS's Cyrenaica branch published photos claiming to show the execution of two Tunisian journalists who had been kidnapped in September 2014.

[83]

On 27 January 2015, an in Tripoli involving gunmen and a car bomb killed at least ten people, including five foreigners. The IS's Tripoli branch claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming it was revenge for the death of Libyan al-Qaeda operative Abu Anas al-Libi in American custody earlier in the month.[84][85]

attack on the Corinthia Hotel

On 3 February 2015, gunmen claiming to represent IS stormed a French-Libyan oil field near the town of Mabruk, killing nine guards.

[1]

On 15 February 2015, IS released a video showing the who had been kidnapped in Sirte.[86] IS's Dabiq magazine had earlier published photos of the Copts and threatened to kill them to "avenge the kidnapping of Muslim women by the Egyptian Coptic Church".[87]

beheading of 21 Christian Egyptians

On 20 February 2015, the IS carried out , which targeted a petrol station, a police station and the home of the Libyan parliamentary speaker, killing at least 40 people.[88]

bombings in Al Qubbah

On 24 March 2015, IS claimed responsibility for a suicide that killed five soldiers and two civilians at an army checkpoint in Benghazi.[89]

car bombing

On 5 April 2015, IS's Tripolitania branch claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing on a checkpoint outside , which killed four and wounded 21.[90]

Misrata

On 13 April 2015, militants claiming loyalty to IS posted claims of responsibility on for a bombing outside the Moroccan embassy that caused no casualties, and a gun attack on the South Korean embassy the day before that killed two guards.[91]

Twitter

On 19 April 2015, a video was released online by IS showing the killing of approximately 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya. 15 of the men were beheaded, and another group of the same size were shot in the head.

[92]

On 27 April 2015, the bodies of five men with slit throats were found in the . The bodies were identified as five journalists working for a Libyan TV station who had been kidnapped at an IS checkpoint in August 2014.[93]

Green Mountain forests

On 9 June 2015, US government officials confirmed that IS in Libya had captured 86 Eritrean migrants south of .[94]

Tripoli

On 10 June 2015, IS gunmen in Derna killed Nasser Akr and Salem Derbi, two senior commanders of the Al-Qaeda affiliated .[24]

Shura Council of Mujahideen in Derna

On 7 January 2016, IS carried out a against a police training center in Zliten, killing at least 60 and wounding around 200.[95]

truck bomb attack

On 25 February 2016, IS fighters in took control of a security headquarters, killing and beheading 12 security officers before being driven out the next day.

Sabratha

On 11 September 2018, IS fighters in carried out an attack on the National Oil Corporation of Libya, which is part of an area claimed by IS as its "Libya Wilayat-Tripoli Region".[96]

Tripoli

On 28 October 2018, at least 5 people were killed, including the son of the chairman of the local council, and at least 10 people, including employees of local police stations, were abducted in an IS attack on the Libyan town of . IS attacked the desert town with 25 vehicles and set local government buildings and police stations on fire before fleeing southward to the Haruj mountains to avoid a confrontation with LNA forces.[97][98]

Fuqaha

On 8 July 2019, a group of IS fighters appeared in under the command of Abu Musab al-Libi and took responsibility for an attack that killed and wounded an unidentified number of LNA members on 3 July. Al-Libi was previously a commander of IS fighters in Benghazi.[99]

southern Libya

On 23 May 2020, a blast targeted a security point manned by LNA soldiers at the entrance to , southern Libya. There were no casualties, but IS claimed responsibility for the incident, making it the first claimed attack in almost a year.[100]

Traghan

On 6 June 2021, a blast killed at least two people, including a senior police officer, at a checkpoint in the southern city of . IS claimed responsibility for the explosion, saying that one of its militants carried out a suicide bombing by attacking the checkpoint in an explosive-filled car.[101]

Sebha

Commentary and significance[edit]

The growth of its branch in Libya is seen by IS and its proponents as a model for IS expansion outside Iraq and Syria.[25][102]


The Long War Journal wrote that no well-established Libyan militant organizations had pledged their support to the group and that "the Islamic State has failed, thus far, to garner the allegiance of Ansar al Sharia Libya, which is notorious for its role in the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks in Benghazi and remains one of the most powerful jihadist organizations in eastern Libya. None of Ansar al Sharia's allies in the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council, the Islamist coalition fighting General Khalifa Haftar's forces for control of territory, pledged allegiance to Baghdadi. The Islamic State has supporters in Libya, particularly among the jihadist youth. But other groups are still, by all outward appearances, more entrenched."[103]


Libya Dawn claimed that it had intelligence reports showing that those who claimed to support IS in Tripoli were agents provocateur planted by foreign countries to discredit it. The statement was viewed as an attempt to explain away the growing issue of the extremists in western Libya, with IS supporters said to be present at the Majr camp in Zliten, and in Sabratha.[104] Prime Minister of Malta Joseph Muscat and Leader of the Opposition Simon Busuttil called for the United Nations and European Union to intervene in Libya to prevent the country from becoming a failed state.[105][106]

List of wars and battles involving IS

Trauthig, Inga Kristina (2020). (PDF). London: ICSR. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

"Islamic State in Libya: From Force to Farce?"

Warner, Jason; O'Farrell, Ryan; Nsaibia, Héni; Cummings, Ryan (2020). (PDF). CTC Sentinel. 13 (11). West Point, New York: Combating Terrorism Center: 18–33.

"Outlasting the Caliphate: The Evolution of the Islamic State Threat in Africa"