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| Africa North |
| IS Jihadists Claim Deadly Car Bombs in Eastern Libya |
| 2015-02-21 |
| [AnNahar] The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group claimed deadly boom-mobileings in Libya on Friday as the international community struggles to find ways to end the chaos in the North African nation. Libyan security sources said 31 people were killed and 40 maimed in three simultaneous attacks in the town of al-Qoba that targeted a police headquarters, a petrol station and the home of the parliament speaker. A statement signed by the IS branch in the eastern Cyrenaica region said two of its bully boyz carried out suicide kabooms in retaliation for air strikes on the jihadist stronghold of Derna this week. It said the attacks targeted forces of General Khalifa Haftar ... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... who launched a bloody campaign in May last year to rid Libya of Islamist militias who have thrived since an uprising more than three years ago. "This is a message to anyone who is tempted to attack the soldiers of the caliphate (IS) or any Moslem," the IS statement said. Egypt, in coordination with Haftar's forces, pounded jihadist positions in Derna on Monday after a gruesome IS video showed the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians, most of the Egyptian. After its citizens were murdered, Egypt called for international military action against IS and echoed demands by Libya's recognized government for the lifting of a U.N. arms embargo to tackle the jihadists. But Western and Arab states have flinched at the suggestion of force, and U.N. envoy Bernardino Leon told the U.N. Security Council Wednesday that the only cure for Libya's trauma was political. Some analysts have warned however IS was expected to gain more strength in Libya, after having seized swathes of Syria and Iraq, and said the international community was running out time. But others cautioned that military action in Libya, which has been awash with weapons since strongman Muammar Qadaffy ...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland and was then murdered by his indignant subjects 42 years later... was ousted and killed in a 2011 NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... -backed uprising, would pour fuel on the fire. - IS rise in Libya - The oil-rich North African nation has two rival governments and parliaments, one recognized by the international community and the other with ties to Islamists. Since Qadaffy's ouster, Libya's beleaguered authorities have been struggling to rein in powerful armed militias who have mushroomed after the uprising and are fighting for power. There is increasing concern that some of these militias have pledged allegiance to the Sunni Moslem bad boy IS. In recent weeks IS has claimed several bloody attacks, including a January assault on a Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... hotel that killed nine people, five of them foreigners. "The threat of Islamic State in Libya is set to increase exponentially," analyst Mohammed El-Jareh, a non-resident fellow with the Atlantic Council's Hariri Center for the Middle East, warned on Friday. There has also been increased reports that gunnies who claim affiliation to the group are tightening their grip on power. On Thursday a group of gunnies seized Sirte university and a conference centre, days after taking control of state radio and other government buildings in the coastal city, witnesses said. Sirte, the hometown of Qadaffy, is a stronghold of Ansar al-Sharia ...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libyaand Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet... , classified as a terrorist organization by the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... which is known to be close to al-Qaeda. Ansar al-Sharia has also a presence in Benghazi, where Haftar has been battling Islamists, as well as in Derna -- historically Libya's most radical Islamist city -- and Sabratha in the west. Its ties with IS are unclear although several of its members are reported to have defected to the jihadist group. IS is also said to have cells in Libya's vast southern desert, as well as in Tripoli. On Friday five Egyptians were among the 31 people killed in al-Qoba, a local official and medics said. Most of the dead were queuing for petrol at a station in the town. Medics said parliament speaker Aguila Salah Issa was not at home at the time of the bombings. The internationally recognized parliament has been based in Libya's remote eastern city of Tobruk, since the Fajr Libya militia alliance overran Tripoli in August. |
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