Daesh terrorist outfit capitalizing on chaos in Libya, say analysts

The Daesh Takfiri terrorist outfit is increasingly capitalizing on the chaos in Libya after the terror group lost territory across Iraq and Syria, analysts and experts say.

Prominent terrorism analyst Robert Young Pelton said on Monday that Daesh is believed to be regrouping and recruiting in the rural regions south of the main east-to-west coastal highway and in the far-west town of Sabratha. The region is poised just 60 miles from the Tunisian border.

“The majority of their fighting force comes from Tunisia, so Sabratha is also a growing center,” US-based Fox News quoted Pelton as saying. He added, “ISIS (Daesh) in Libya can regenerate quickly.” 

The terrorist group, Pelton indicated, is well positioned to survive territorial losses as its propaganda promotion ensures ongoing recruitment.

Daesh is “a transnational franchise that comes with funding, trainers and PR packages,” Pelton said, noting, “They seek out groups who will re-brand themselves and project the image of an international organization by standardizing logos, messaging and even design criteria for tweets and videos.” 

The resurgence of Daesh across the troubled region began after the terror group was run out of its Libyan bastion of Sirte late last year.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the coastal city remains little more than rubble months after Daesh was run out of Sirte.

Commenting on the birth of the terror outfit in the North African country, Col. Ahmed Almesmari, spokesperson for General Khalifah Haftar’s self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA), said that Daesh first appeared in Libya at the end of 2013. He said the terrorist group was borne out of “Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated militias” and al- Qaeda dissidents in Libya’s eastern port city of Derna near the Egyptian border. 

According to Almesmari, Daesh has seemingly moved its operatives from the eastern Egyptian border and now appears to be clustering closer to the western Tunisian side.

The terror faction has recently established camps around 25 miles east of the town of Bani Waleed as well as south of Sirte.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Ghasri, spokesperson and senior commander of the Mistrata-based al-Bunyam al-Marsous militia, also stated that they, too, have observed movements by the extremist group south of Sirte, where they are “trying to regroup and break through our forces’ lines in the south.” 

SS