Free Republic

The father and the younger brother of the suicide bomber who killed 22 people at a concert venue in Manchester have been arrested in Tripoli, a spokesman for a local counter-terrorism force said on Wednesday. The counter-terrorism force detained the father, Ramadan Abedi, outside his home in the Tripoli suburb of Ayn Zara on Wednesday afternoon. A witness said he was handcuffed by armed men who drove him away in two unmarked vehicles. The force, known as Rada, detained the brother Hashem Abedi, who was born in 1997, on Tuesday evening on suspicion of links to Islamic State, spokesman Ahmed...

An armoured vehicle of Libyan forces allied with the U.N.-backed government is pictured during a battle with Islamic State militants in neighbourhood Number Three in Sirte, Libya October 9, 2016. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny ************************************************************* TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libyan pro-government forces are advancing into the last area controlled by Islamic State in the coastal city of Sirte, surrounding the militants after a five-month campaign backed by U.S. air strikes, military officials say.At least eight pro-government fighters were killed over the weekend as their forces pushed into the 600 block, an area in central Sirte, with snipers and boobytraps posing the main obstacles...

For the first time, elite U.S. Special Operations troops are directly helping fighters combat against ISIS in Libya with on-site support, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing U.S. and Libyan officials. A small group of U.S. Special Operations forces are operating together with UK troops in Sirte, a city on the Libyan coast and ISIS’ de facto capital in North Africa. The role of the U.S. troops is limited to backing forces loyal to Libya’s unity Government of National Accord (GNA), The Post noted, quoting U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Last week, the U.S. launched precision...

they are considering arming and training the new unity government in Libya so it can fight the spread of terrorist groups in the country and counter the smuggling of migrants to Europe. In a joint communique following a lengthy meeting on ways to rein in chaos in Libya, the diplomats said they would support Libya’s request to be exempted from a United Nations embargo that was put in place five years ago to keep arms out of the hands of Islamist militants and rival militias locked in a power struggle. Other parts of the embargo would be reinforced, the communique...

Serbian prime minister Aleksandar Vucic says Americans apparently ‘were not aware that foreign citizens’ were being held at Isis camp

Libya is embroiled in a civil war in which various militias are too busy fighting each other to worry much about fighting ISIS, and teams of U.S. Special Operations Forces working to change that have had little success. The ongoing chaos has allowed ISIS to continue growing and solidifying its presence along the coast. Senior ISIS commanders are taking advantage of the territory to escape U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. ... Obama gathered his national security advisers last Thursday to talk about the fight against ISIS and asked them to prepare options to address the group's presence in Libya...

IS leader al-Baghdadi reportedly moves from Turkey to Libya 13:22, 09 Dec 2015 Siranush Ghazanchyan The leader of the Islamic State Takfiri terrorist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has moved from Turkey to Libya to escape the hunt operation of the Baghdad Intelligence Sharing Center after he was traced down and allegedly targeted a number of times in Iraq and the Syria, sources said on Tuesday, Fars News Agency reports. Sources in Libya said al-Baghdadi has arrived in Sirte, the hometown of the slain Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, which is under the control of the Takfiri groups. The IS leader is...

ISIS Pilots Training in Lybia Thank you, Hillary! December 9, 2015 Kenneth R. Timmerman ISIS is now training pilots for future terrorist missions on an imported flight simulator in Libya, according to Arabic media reports citing Libyan and Egyptian military officials. The flight simulator, apparently imported in October, is now located in the former Qaddafi stronghold of Sirte, about halfway between Benghazi and Tripoli. "It's a modern simulator, which apparently arrived from abroad," the officials told the London-based Arabic daily, Al Sharq al Awsat. The simulator is the size of a compact car and includes a steering wheel, radar...

UPDATED: Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has said that the conflict in Libya was Italy's main priority, following a meeting with French President François Hollande on Thursday morning. "Libya is the next focus," he said. "We must give top priority to Libya, which is likely to be the next emergency." Hollande had called the meeting with Renzi to discuss ways Italy can support France in its military campaign against Isis. On Monday Italian media reports suggested France would ask Italy to commit soldiers on the ground in Libya, according to La Repubblica. But Renzi was still unclear as to what...

Libya's internationally recognised government appealed to Arab states over the weekend to launch air strikes against militants allied to the Islamic State (IS) group who have expanded their hold on the eastern coastal city of Sirte. "The Libyan government, unable to ward off these terrorist groups because of the arms embargo, and out of its historic responsibility toward its people, calls on brotherly Arab countries ... to launch airstrikes against specific targets of [Islamic State group] locations in Sirte in coordination with our relevant agencies," the statement said. The statement came late on Saturday as the IS affiliate seized control...

Al-Qaida-linked militants in eastern Libya declared holy war — or jihad — on the local Islamic State affiliate after one of their senior leaders was killed Wednesday by masked gunmen, which set off clashes between the rival groups that left 11 people dead on both sides, including a top militant commander. The hours-long fighting in the eastern coastal city of Darna erupted after gunmen opened fire on Nasser Akr, an al-Qaida-inspired militant once held in the United Kingdom on terrorism charges. The 55-year-old veteran jihadi, who fought in Afghanistan, was killed along with his aide.