Massacre of Egyptians in Libya: Bloodiest in ISIS history

Aya Ezz

On a beach in the Libyan city of Sirte, blood stained the yellow sand after ISIS cut off the heads of 21 Egyptian workers in a brutal massacre in 2015.

Saturday, February 15, 2020, marked the fifth anniversary of the bloodiest massacre in the history of the terrorist organization, which it carried out while controlling some areas in Libya in 2015.

This bloody incident was followed by a swift Egyptian response. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a decision for the Air Force to launch strikes against ISIS camps in Libya, which resulted in heavy losses for the terrorist organization.

In September 2017, the head of investigations in the Libyan prosecutor’s office announced the arrest of a cameraman who filmed the massacre in Libya, without giving his name.

The detained ISIS member’s testimony clarified that one of the organization’s leaders asked him to equip a car and go to an area of ​​Sirte overlooking the beach, after which a number of ISIS members dressed in black uniforms arrived kidnapped the Egyptians.

ISIS in Libya announced at the end of December 2014 that it kidnapped seven Egyptian Coptic workers in the city of Sirte, and then it kidnapped 14 others in early January 2015 from their homes in the city, bringing the number to 21.

The ISIS member’s account confirmed that the organization used modern photography techniques, as a video of the massacre deliberately did not show the victims’ resistance.

Following the confession, the Libyan authorities were able to locate the bodies of the victims south of Sirte, which were then handed over to the Egyptian authorities.

In a successful operation in the southwestern city of Sabha on January 18, 2019, the Libyan National Army (LNA) killed Al-Mahdi Salem Dangou, the number one person involved in the massacre of Egyptians in Sirte. He had founded the Desert Army in southern Libya and was one of the most wanted people by the Libyan government.