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Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Islamic State takes Libyan port city

Aug 16, 2015 3:43 am By Robert Spencer

ISIS-Sirte-LibyaIts “refugee” incursions into Europe will now only intensify. Among the “refugees” will be untold numbers of jihadis. There is no telling how many Europeans will die violent deaths as a result.

“Black flags on Europe’s doorstep: Inside ISIS’s new capital Sirte on Libya’s coast,” by Tom Batchelor, Sunday Express, August 15, 2015 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

The Mediterranean port city of Sirte, just a few hundred miles from Europe’s coastline, is now the de facto base of the jihadist group’s Libyan wing.

Terror experts now fear the Islamic State in Libya – or ISL – is strengthening its hold on the region, and Sirte could soon rival Raqqa in Syria or Mosul in Iraq as a headquarters for the barbaric organisation.

In June, ISL militants took Sirte’s power plant, giving them complete control of the city.

It triggered the looting of the homes of local politicians and the grudging admittance from senior Libyan officials that the city was no longer under government control.

Since early summer the ISIS-loyal extremists have now ramped up their “state-building” efforts as they establish a full-blown city state in Sirte.

In acts that bear a chilling resemblance to the establishment of their declared ‘caliphate’ in Syria and Iraq, ISIS-inspired fighters have plastered the group’s black flag across the city and have erected billboards promoting their hate-filled messages.

The group took control of the city’s TV and radio station, hospital and university and ISL are now using the city’s former internal security building as its command centre.

ISL is also engaged in a propaganda war to promote life in the Sirte ‘caliphate’ as peaceful and prosperous.

Aaron Zelin, a research fellow on the jihadist movement from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the group had “shown off the city’s landscapes, port, bustling markets, and fully stocked grocery stores” in a bid to appeal to new recruits.

Sirte is now regarded as the centre of ISL – and of ISIS in north Africa.

Mr Zelin added: “ISL is now in the state-building stage – it aims to show residents that life is continuing and that its presence has brought normalcy and stability.”

ISIS is likely to become a “far more formidable force” following its gains in north Africa, according to the Washington-based security analyst, who warned bloodthirsty militants were close to capturing a key oil field in lawless Libya….

ISL originated in the city of Darnah in April 2014, but the group lost control of the area soon after and re-established itself in Sirte, hundreds of miles to the west and much closer to Tripoli.

After capturing nearby al-Nawfaliyah in February, it imposed its fanatical interpretation of Islam on residents in coastal towns across the region.

The group has swept to power in Sirte with relative ease, having allied with the local wing of jihadist organisation Ansar al-Sharia in Libya (ASL) to create an extremist supergroup that has faced little opposition.

ISL fighters in Libya even convinced militants from the lower-profile ASL to pledge allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi late last year….

In July, the French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described Libya as the perfect launch pad for ISIS attacks on Europe….

The militant group launched an offensive this week to retake the city of Darnah after a rival Islamist group had expelled it and in separate violence, ISL crushed a rival Islamist group near Sirte on Thursday, with 30 people reportedly killed….

Hani Sabra, Middle East and North Africa head of the New York-based risk consultancy Eurasia Group, said “North Africa as a region is unstable across the board – Libya, Tunisia, Egypt”.

Thanks to Barack Obama.

For now, at least, ISIS in Libya is only growing in strength.

Its new capital Sirte serves as proof that the terror regime is capable of establishing a so-called ‘caliphate’ in north Africa to rival its existing strongholds in the Middle East.

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Filed Under: Featured, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Libya Tagged With: Raqqa, Sirte


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Comments

  1. nicu says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 3:59 am

    Under Ghaddafi Libya had the highest standard of life in Africa !

    Free schools , health care , free water and power when couples got married they got money etc.

    It was better before ” American democracy ” …

    • particolor says

      Aug 16, 2015 at 6:48 am

      Who’s buying those Rabble Ratbags all those Pretty Vehicles and Weapons ???? 🙁

      • cynical1 says

        Aug 16, 2015 at 7:25 am

        Yes, and not droning them.

        How the hell can a line of Toyota Landcruisers travel like that?

        Just ONE a10 Warthog would clean then up.

        • TH says

          Aug 16, 2015 at 7:34 pm

          2Just ONE a10 Warthog would clean then up” They know that Barak Hussein will send no Warthogs to attack them, so they can line up like sitting ducks.

    • Zimriel says

      Aug 16, 2015 at 1:19 pm

      Well, that’s what Qaddafi told everyone, anyway.

      If Libya was better-run than Tunisia, it would have handled the transition to democracy like Tunisia. Tunisia has big problems but at least it still exists.

  2. Bruno Dore says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 5:09 am

    from Italy:
    Thanks to Barack Obama

    • Zimriel says

      Aug 16, 2015 at 4:35 pm

      – with the full connivance of John McCain and Lindsey Graham in the Reid-McConnell Senate, now the McConnell-Reid Senate.

  3. Goat Pimp says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 5:32 am

    This is a horrible development.

    Obama is obsessed about what to call the group:

    Islamic State
    IS
    ISIS
    ISIL
    Daesh
    and now:
    ISL

    Obama thinks that if he calls them the right name they will go away. Head-in-the-sand mentality.

  4. Stephanie says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 5:48 am

    Its “refugee” incursions into Europe will now only intensify. Among the “refugees” will be untold numbers of jihadis 9:29-33, 111. …”

    TheLeftistTheGreenCDUSPDFDP motto is “Refugees welcome” 🙂 (for the empty pension cash box Germans die MORE than new born)

  5. Angemon says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 6:27 am

    The Mediterranean port city of Sirte, just a few hundred miles from Europe’s coastline, is now the de facto base of the jihadist group’s Libyan wing.

    I wonder if the city is within shelling distance…

    • Huck Folder says

      Aug 16, 2015 at 1:26 pm

      “In July, the French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described Libya as the perfect launch pad for ISIS attacks on Europe….”

      That weapon has two edges.

      Mine all Libyan ports which export the invaders.
      Destroy all vessels along their coast.
      Destroy all oil facilities under their control.

  6. duh_swami says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 6:44 am

    What, no summary executions or the taking of sex slave girls? That’s not very Islamic, is it?

    • Zimriel says

      Aug 16, 2015 at 4:37 pm

      Oh, they’re happening. We just don’t have footage… yet.

  7. Mr UPSIDE DOWN says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 7:51 am

    i believe its ALL GOOD because,the more they expand the more dangerous they become,they will become more daring..they WILL COME UNSTUCK….them more evil and violent they show themselves to be..them more folks in the west will wake up to what is instore for Europe and the US …in not to far future yrs to come …
    ALSO WE HAVE THE MIGHTY GOD ON OUR SIDE….”BECAUSE OF THE EVIL THAT YOU DO I WILL NOT HOLD BACK MY HAND FROM DESTROYING YOU..” FROM SOMEWHERE IN THE BIBLE

  8. Bob Crosby says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 8:12 am

    I am sorely confused, as shown in photo these clowns are driving down the road single file in open country and we are not bombing them. Looks like someone cut a deal to leave them alone Obama ?

    • particolor says

      Aug 17, 2015 at 6:27 pm

      I just heard on the News that they might be Stolen Vehicles from Australia Shipped to Syria in containers !!
      Says a lot for our Customs ?? 🙁

  9. Jay Boo says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 9:36 am

    Reagan attacked Khadafy to support American servicemen.
    Obama attacked Khadafy to support the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.

    Different results

  10. Thomas says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 12:00 pm

    Islam and sharia will be all over the world in the coming years and nothing will stop the slaughter of nonmuslims. Wake up people, we are all sitting ducks.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 17, 2015 at 7:38 pm

      Thomas, why do you keep counseling despair and surrender?

  11. Enfant Terrible says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 12:47 pm

    The harvest of the Arab Spring. – Thank-you Nato, O’bama, H. Clinton, the U.N. and the rest responsible for enabling this step on the road to……democracy ?.

    Bring down another despot and “Moderate Muslims” take power.

  12. Charli Main says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 1:20 pm

    The Italian navy had better move more ships into the area. Better yet, ask Obama for beach landing craft so that they can drive up on to the beaches of Libya to pick up all the ” poor, desparate refugees” looking for a better life in Europe. That way none of them will drown and all the bleeding heart, do gooding muslim huggers can feel so good about themselves.

  13. Michael Copeland says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 6:57 pm

    Question for Tom Batchelor of the Sunday Express:
    What is the “non-fanatical interpretation” of:
    “Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them” ?
    (Koran 9:5, part of Islamic law)

  14. jewdog says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 7:03 pm

    Trump’s call to take the oil away from ISIS is the first sensible thing that I have read about countering that organization. The next step is to realize that that step and further ones will require taking and controlling land on a permanent basis.

  15. Sabri S. says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 7:11 pm

    That above quotation only applied
    In the 7th century during wartime…wake
    Up and understand true islam as it applies
    Today…allah u akbar!!

    • Champ says

      Aug 16, 2015 at 7:17 pm

      Ahem! We are awake …you, however, are not; in fact you’re living in darkness.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 17, 2015 at 6:48 pm

      The appalling Sabri S. wrote:

      That above quotation only applied
      In the 7th century during wartime…wake
      Up and understand true islam as it applies
      Today…allah u akbar!!
      ……………………….

      Which quotation would that be? The Qur’an is supposed to be” uncreated”, and stands for all time.

      And we see true Islam all around us today–especially in the 26,000 Jihad terror attacks just since 9/11.

  16. Linda Rivera says

    Aug 17, 2015 at 10:46 pm

    It’s American policy to destablize Middle Eastern and other countries.

    US/NATO must be CELEBRATING barbaric ISIS victory in Libya. US/NATO waged a ruthless war for months for Al Qaeda and other Muslim terrorist savages against Gaddafi and the innocent Libyan people. Ethical Gaddafi was fighting AGAINST Al Qaeda.

    U.S. aircraft hunted Gaddafi down enabling the terrorist savages that US/NATO supported to violently sexually and physically attack Gaddafi and brutally murder him. The exact same way the U.S. ambassador was later murdered by the terrorists the U.S. supported.

    US/NATO achieved their WICKED goal: ISIS terrorist savages’ major victory in Libya that will threaten all of Europe. US/NATO/EU/UN leaders will be popping out the champagne bottles.

  17. Linda Rivera says

    Aug 17, 2015 at 10:51 pm

    Note the very long line of ISIS jeeps. U.S. aircraft could have easily totally destroyed every single one but Obama didn’t want to stop his ISIS brothers’ huge victory in Libya. Same long line of ISIS jeeps in Iraq.

    They must have been popping out the champagne bottles at the White Mosque (House)

    • particolor says

      Aug 18, 2015 at 6:12 pm

      Fully Automatic ! An Ape could drive them ! 🙂

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