A U.S. government report circulated Tuesday said extremists were observed "strategizing" on Internet forums about how to set up an Islamist state in Libya after the regime of Col. Gadhafi is defeated. Some U.S. officials sought to play down the remarks by noting that such Internet postings are not always accurate measures of jihadist plans. The report said the jihadists' strength and influence on the ground "are uncertain at this time." However, the report said the jihadist plotting coincided with the high-profile emergence of Abu Abdallah al-Sadiq, a former leader of the al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and now a leading rebel. About 1,000 jihadists are operating covertly in Libya, Noman Benotman, a former Libyan al Qaeda member, told The Washington Times in March.
According to a translation of the forum exchanges, Libyan Islamists view the fall of Tripoli to rebels as the initial phase of a battle to take over the country. Jihadists were urged to prepare for the next stage in the battle: taking on secular rebels and the interim National Transitional Council, sometimes called the Transitional National Council, the secular political organization that is mainly pro-democratic.