Rival Libya forces in race to expel IS from Sirte bastion

Rival Libyan forces are preparing separate offensives against the Islamic State group as the jihadists gain new territory, in another sign of deep divisions in the North African country. The UN-backed unity government based in Tripoli has announced the formation of a new military command to take charge of the battle against IS. It has urged military forces to unite and not to launch any unilateral offensive on Sirte, the Mediterranean city which IS overran last June and has turned into a recruitment and training camp.

"We have finalised our preparations to retake Sirte and other regions and the military operation will begin soon,"  a member of the new military command told journalists.

But in the east, the so-called Libyan Arab armed forces under the command of General Khalifa Haftar are also preparing for battle. A spokesman for Haftar said military plans have been drawn up to "liberate Sirte" in an operation that will be launched from the Bamba region, east of second city Benghazi. He said ground, air and naval forces would take part in the operation.

"We have the capability and the equipment," he said, declining to give a date for the launch of the offensive or say how many forces will take part.

Mattia Toaldo, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, warned that separate attempts by the unity government and Haftar to wage war against IS could backfire. "If pushed with unco-ordinated efforts IS could either be in a better position to resist or decide to sneak out and move elsewhere," he said. The failure of Libya's armed forces to unite under one banner would create a new "military problem" and ultimately crush any hope of the unity government imposing its authority across the nation.

His comments come as IS jihadists have over the past week advanced from Sirte into territory held by the unity government, capturing key checkpoints along the Mediterranean coast. On Wednesday, IS suicide bombers attacked the Saddada highway checkpoint killing four soldiers and wounding 24 others, a week after a similar assault on Abu Grein. The attacks have given IS a strategic edge, allowing the jihadists to create a defensive line along part of the coastal highway that links the east of Libya to Tripoli. The jihadists have also inched closer to the loyalist city of Misrata, which is located 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Tripoli and about the same distance from Sirte.

Sirte has a port and an airport and this has fuelled fears that the jihadists could use the city as a staging post for attacks on European soil. IS is estimated to have around 5,000 fighters in Libya and it is trying to enlist hundreds more.

Claudia Gazzini, senior analyst on Libya for the International Crisis Group, warned of the political implications of separate operations to expel IS from Sirte.

"The race for Sirte is driving the two extremes of the Libyan political spectrum ... making a compromise political solution more distant," she said.

The jihadists have already fed on the political and military divisions that have plagued Libya since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi to build a bastion in Sirte. It has claimed deadly attacks, including beheadings and targeted foreign embassies.

The jihadist assault on Abu Grein sparked an exodus from the town, with hundreds of families fearing the brutal rule of IS fleeing to the town of Bani Walid, 150 kilometres southeast of Tripoli. According to local official Abdel Rahman Al-Hmayl, Bani Walid is now home to around 20,000 people who have been displaced from Sirte and Abu Grein.

Raja Saliman, who fled Abu Grein with her mother and three brothers, said she was at school when IS jihadists entered her town. "I went home, thinking I would not make it alive," she said. "We heard the sound of clashes and we were afraid. And then we heard that people were fleeing. We didn't know what to do but then we decided to leave too," she said.    (AFP)

Related articles on Qantara.de:

Political crisis in Libya: United we stand?

Gaddafi and the West's military intervention: A nation forsworn, forsaken, forgotten

Interview with Martin Kobler, UN Special Representative on Libya: "Libya must not become the Syria of tomorrow"