IS briefly takes center of strategic Libyan city

Dawadi said that fighters from the Sabratha military council launched raids in the suburbs of the city yesterday searching for IS militants. They had also been training Libyan forces, they added.

France’s Le Monde newspaper on Wednesday said special forces and members of the DGSE external security service were present in Libya for “clandestine operations” against ISIS jihadists, thought to number several thousand. The French defence ministry declined to comment.

American intelligence officials estimate that the group’s ranks in Libya have grown to 6,500 fighters, more than doubling since the fall.

The two cities have been on opposite sides of Libya’s post-Qaddafi conflict, with Zintan allied to the internationally recognised government now based in the country’s far east and Sabrathan forces among those that support a rival government whose armed supporters seized the capital Tripoli in 2014.

Both the United Nations and the United States want to see a unity government to end civil war between the country’s rival administrations, an agreement that would allow both to focus on combating ISIL.

UN Libya envoy Martin Kobler tweeted: “Concerned by slowness of political process in Libya, overtaken by military events, must speed up to stop Da’esh [Isis] expansion”.

Fighting began in Sabratha on Tuesday, when militants stormed into the city, beheading 11 local security men before retreating after clashes with local Sabratha brigades.

The city has served as a hub for migrants preparing to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. They killed 19 guards (12 of whom they beheaded) during the approximately three hours during which they occupied the building.

Sabratha has become the latest Libyan power center for the local IS affiliate.

Fighting has flared periodically in Benghazi as security forces try to wrest neighborhoods from armed groups including Daesh and Ansar Al-Sharia, which is close to Al-Qaeda. Permission won’t be granted for offensive missions under the arrangement.

French President Hollande said the country was at war against IS after the jihadist group claimed responsibility for the November terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.

The article triggered an official probe in France into a possible leak of classified information.

“[Jihadists] are there, spanning almost 300 kilometers of coastline, and they are spreading”, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned in early February.