Category: Libya

IS in Action

On 26 July, the LNA announced the arrest of an alleged member of the Islamic State’s (IS) religious police, Atiya Abdul Hamid Shalawi, in the Shiha neighbourhood of Derna. Shalawi was arrested in an ambush at dawn as he was trying to enter the city.

On 29 July, the 24^th report of the UN’s ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida/Taliban Monitoring Team was published. The reported stated that IS activity in southern Libya had “gained momentum as a consequence of the preoccupation of the Libyan National Army with the battle around Tripoli.” Despite being removed from Libya’s coastal areas, IS fighters continue to be “a significant threat in the subcostal region, from south of the oil fields in the east to the boarders with Algeria in the west.” The reported also noted that the groups numbers had dropped to low hundreds and that “the only non-Libyan in the top leadership of IS is Libya is Iraqi national Abu Moaz al-Tkriti (not listed), while the rest of the leadership are Libyan nationals.”

On 4 July, security forces in Sirte allegedly arrested a suspected IS member. The individual was allegedly planning to organise and undertake a terror attack.

Other Jihadi Actors

On 24 July, the Misratan Joint Security Force undertook a dawn raid against alleged al-Qaeda leaders in an undisclosed suburb of Tripoli. The GNA’s interior ministry stated that those arrested were connected to attacks launched in Tripoli. The primary target for the raid was an Algerian national dubbed “al-Chaoui” along with several other Libyans. The names and the total number of those arrested have not been officially disclosed. Weapons and documents for producing explosives were reportedly discovered.

A weekly update of ISIS’s actions, the Western response, and developments pertaining to Libya’s other militias are available by subscribing here. To read about Western countries’ responses to ISIS in Libya this week, click here. To read their explanation of the developments within the anti-ISIS Coalition of Libyan militias, click here.

IS in Action

On 26 June, the US Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Paul Selva, reportedly told a group of reporters in Washington that the US administration is seeing a “small resurgence of those [IS] camps in the central region” following the Libyan National Army’s (LNA) assault on the capital in April. Selva also alleged that certain Tuareg groups were “helping out the IS militants and moving people back and forth across the border to the south.” Selva suggested the LNA and the Government of National Accord (GNA) had been “keeping a lid on IS for their own individual interest for a fair period of time”, yet he was concerned that IS might become a “third party in the fight in Libya.”

Other Jihadi Actors

On 23 June, unconfirmed reports suggested a prominent Al-Qaeda member, Adel Al-Hanashi, has been fighting amongst GNA-aligned forces against the LNA in the Tripoli suburb of Aziziyah. Al-Hanashi is said to have lived in Yemen in the 90’s and then under the name of “Rabee al-Janzouri” travelled to Afghanistan where he joined Al-Qaeda.

To read all four sections of this week’s Eye on ISIS in Libya report, click here.

ISIS in Action  On 23 June, IS published its latest al-Naba newsletter no. 187, which included details of its clashes with Libyan National Army (LNA) forces west of the Harouj mountains. IS claimed to have killed as many as 50 LNA fighters from five separate battalions. In an infographic published on 21 June, the group claimed 3 attacks and resulting in 53 casualties in its “Libya Wilayat” between 14 and 20 June.