Libya Becoming Part of the ISIS Caliphate

Libya: A nation being absorbed by the ISIS Caliphate?
Map courtesy of Google/Nations Online Project

The release of the movie 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi appears to have triggered a discussion about ISIS taking over the country of Libya. Posts on the subject have been published by the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Long War Journal, the British newspapers  The Mirror and The Guardian,  Al Arabiya,  and Business Insider among others. Unnoticed by most Americans, the Islamic State, aka IS, aka ISIS, aka ISIL, has been extending itself beyond today’s main battlefields of Syria and Iraq. Libya has been an early recipient of ISIS’ attentions. One of the first areas in Libya seized by ISIS in November 2014 was the area around and including the city of Derna. Derna with a population of about 100,000 is on the Mediterranean coast to the northwest of Tobruk and is close to the Egyptian border to the East. According to CNN, ISIS initially had a force of 800 around Derna, but that they were bolstered by around 300 Libyan jihadists who had returned from the fight in Syria.

Following their seizure of Derna in February 2015, ISIS made international news by releasing a video showing the executions of twenty-one Egyptian Coptic Christians in orange jumpsuits. The video shows the captives being led by their executioners along the beach to the place of execution. There the video shows the executioners beheading their prisoners. In April a similar video was released showing the executions of twenty-nine Ethiopians. Then in March ISIS sent gunmen to kill twenty foreign tourists in a Tunis museum, and in June they slew thirty-eight more, mostly British tourists in a Tunisian sea-side resort.

To further discomfit Europe, ISIS in Libya has been driving illegal immigration of Africans across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Eventually, ISIS lost control of Derna, but not to any force friendly to the West, but rather to another Islamist group! Tensions with another local Islamist group loyal to Al Qaeda grew to the point that ISIS assassinated their leader, whereupon that group forced ISIS out of the city. However, before they lost Derna, ISIS was able to seize a lot of terrain along the coastline, particularly around and including the city of Sirte, also transliterated as Surt or Sert. They have total control over a long stretch of coast around Sirte, as well as an operational presence in most coastal towns and cities including Derna, Tripoli, and Benghazi.

Recently, ISIS has declared the Libyan territory they control to be a province of the Caliphate (or Khilafah), and claim to have taken control of the coastal town of Bin Jawed. They have also attacked the port town of Al Sidr, which is one of Libya’s largest oil ports, as well as the refinery town of Ras Lanuf.

It appears that ISIS is targeting all of Libya’s oil infrastructure, seeking to control oil fields, refineries, ports, and storage facilities, or to deny their use to others. This seems to follow their practice in Iraq and Syria, as they seek to eventually gain long-term revenues from the oil.

Lacking any determined resistance from the U.S., other NATO allies, Israel, or from any Arab allies such as Egypt or Saudi Arabia, ISIS can be expected to strengthen their hold on Libya. Both Britain and the U.S. have stated their interest in targeting the Islamic State in Libya – the U.S. conducted limited air strikes against them last year – but they insist on waiting for a political solution of Libya’s civil war before they directly take part in the fight. For some time then, we can expect little Western resistance against the Islamic State in Libya. If ISIS is able to widen and entrench their presence there, they will gain a number of advantages over their enemies, particularly against Europe.

1. Control of Libya, or a large part of it, gives ISIS greater claim to be the heirs of Mohammed, and to be building Allah’s Caliphate. This claim allows them to continue to inspire Muslims to join ISIS’ cause. If ISIS can increase the number of countries under their control; nations such as Libya, Yemen, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia; their moral authority over other Muslims increases proportionally.
2. Libya at its closest to southern Europe is only about 300 miles away. From Libya they can either funnel additional African refugees across the Mediterranean to increase the economic and social burden on the European Union, or infiltrate agents into Europe.
3. If they can gain control of it, Libya’s oil wealth can help support their operations.
4. Libya would give the Islamic State one more population from which to recruit soldiers.

ISIS has shown us through their operations in a number of countries they are very serious about subordinating the entire world to their Caliphate. It is not at all certain the rest of the world is really serious about resisting and destroying them. European nations have disarmed themselves so thoroughly over the decades in order to fund their cradle-to-grave welfare states, it is not at all clear they have much with which to be serious! Certainly, the Obama administration shows very little enthusiasm for destroying ISIS. It would appear that President Obama merely wants to kick the can down the road to the next President.

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