Back in November, there were reports that the Islamic State was in control of the Libyan city of Derna. A couple of weeks ago, the Islamic State of Tripoli announced that it had kidnapped twenty-one Christian “Crusaders.” And now this. Libya has descended into jihadist chaos, courtesy Barack Obama.
Note also how the determinedly clueless Telegraph calls the group “the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,” a name it discarded seven months ago, and which is especially non-applicable in a story in which it is operating far away from Iraq and the Levant.
“Hotel in Libya ‘stormed by Islamic State gunmen,'” the Telegraph, January 27, 2015 (thanks to Anne Crockett):
Islamist gunmen have stormed a hotel in Libya used by foreigners, killing at least three guards and taking a number of hostages, it was reported today.
The attack on the five-star Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli was carried out by fighters from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), according to a US-based intelligence monitoring organisation that quoted a message put out on Isil’s Libyan Twitter feed.
Details of the attack were still unclear, but according to security sources at the scene, four armed men had detonated a car bomb in front of the hotel, killing a guard, before rushing inside.
The men, who were wearing masks and bulletproof vests, then began firing randomly at staff in the lobby. It is understood that a number of hostages have been taken, but the nationalities were unclear.
Security forces have now surrounded the building, while residents fled out of emergency exits.
One member of staff said the hotel had Italian, British and Turkish guests, but the hotel was largely empty at the time of the attack. Other reports said that the claims of hostages having been taken were not yet confirmed.
Essam Naas, a spokesman for Tripoli security forces, told Reuters: “The security forces are evacuating the guests floor by floor. There was shooting between the gunmen and the security forces,”
“It is more than likely that there are hostages held by the gunmen on the 23rd floor.”
The Maltese-owned hotel is also used by senior Libyan politicians as a de facto headquarters for visits to Tripoli and political meetings….