ISIS establishing a new stronghold in Libya’s Sabratah

Rubeir al-Fares

A French report has revealed that the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group has started controlling the western Libyan city of Sabratah.

This is the newest ISIS stronghold after the defeat of the terrorist organization in Iraq and Syria.

The report by Radio France Internationale is based on the accounts of the residents of the city.

ISIS, they said, has already started controlling Sabratah.

They drew links between the transfer of mercenaries from Syria to Libya by Turkey and the control ISIS is imposing on the western Libyan city.

ISIS, the radio said, is gradually controlling the city.

ISIS members do not operate secretly in Sabratah any more, the residents said.

They added that the members of the terrorist organization are mainly based in two camps inside Sabratah’s suburbs.

The report attributes the emergence of ISIS in this western Libyan city to the withdrawal of the Libyan National Army (LNA) from it.

Sabratah was among several cities left behind by the LNA after the militias affiliated with the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) controlled them.

It said the operations room formed by the GNA to fight ISIS contains extremists.

The LNA said several times in the past that some of the leaders of ISIS have entered Sabratah together with the arrival of the Syrian mercenaries to Libya.

This is not the first time ISIS controls Sabratah, said counterterrorism expert A’alia Alani.

He said the members of the organization have an experience controlling the city in 2011 and 2014.

Sabratah has become an important ISIS stronghold, Alani said.

He said the GNA does not control western Libya as it likes to claim.

The fact is that the terrorist militias control the scene in the western part of Libya, Alani said.