ISIL Takfiris kill 5 Libya Dawn fighters

Iran Press TV

Wed Mar 25, 2015 4:23PM

ISIL Takfiri terrorists have killed five Libya Dawn fighters near the coastal city of Sirte in Libya.

"[The Takfiri terrorists] attacked a checkpoint 15 kilometers (9 miles) west of Sirte, killing five members of Brigade 166 belonging to the Libya Dawn and tasked with protecting Sirte against the ISIL threat,' brigade spokesman, Khaled Abou Jizya, said.

A local official said the slain fighters, who were tasked by the Tripoli-based government with maintaining security in the city, had engaged in sporadic fighting with the ISIL militants around the city. The official added that the terrorist used rockets to carry out the attack.

Also, in an audio message, the extremist group claimed responsibility for a double bombing attack that left at least seven soldiers dead in Libya's second city, Benghazi, on Tuesday, and clashes that left at least 12 Libya Dawn fighters dead near Sirte, last week.

One state, two governments

Libya plunged into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled long-time dictator, Muammar Gaddafi. Since the ouster of Gaddafi, heavily-armed militias with deep political divisions are in control of the North African state.

The two rival camps vying for control over the resource-rich country, one controlling Tripoli in the west, and the other - Libya's internationally recognized government - in control of the cities of Bayda and Tobruk in the east, have not been able to stabilize the situation despite intervention and aid from international peace brokers, including the UN.

Libya's government and elected parliament moved to Tobruk after the Libya Dawn group, which is based in the northwestern city of Misrata and also controls the strategic city of Benghazi, seized Tripoli and most government institutions in August 2014, and set up its own government and parliament.

ISIL in Libya

ISIL militants, whose terror campaign is focused in Iraq and Syria, extended their sphere of diabolic influence into Libya, taking advantage of the chaos in the rich country.

ISIL shocked the world by carrying out an attack on the Corinthian hotel in Tripoli, and by releasing a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians on a Libyan beach, in addition to killing 45 people and injuring dozens of others in triple bomb explosions in the northeastern city of al-Qubah.

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