Libya Channel
The Islamic State in Libya is on the verge of losing its stronghold of Derna, as residents and rival jihadi groups joined forces to push them out of the embattled town.
Fierce fighting erupted last Wednesday when IS militants – who have ruled the area with an iron fist – killed two prominent commanders Nasr al-Akar and Faraj al-Houti from the rival Derna Mujahideen Shura Council — an al-Qaeda linked umbrella group that refused to pledge allegiance to IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his Yemeni emir. Salim Darbi, from Abu Salim Martyrs Brigade, another Islamist militia in the city which has rejected IS, was also killed.
According to residents one of the targeted commanders survived the initial hit but was later murdered by IS in his hospital bed, sparking more uproar. The Shura Council killed a foreign fighter within IS’s ranks in retaliation, starting ongoing clashes.
IS have now reportedly lost the city’s Pearl Hotel, where they had temporarily set up camp, their Sharia Law court and prisons, as well as al-Harish Hospital where most of their injured fighters were being treated. Eyewitnesses said they have been scattered into the neighborhoods where they live and the fighting continues street-by-street.
Residents led the initial charge, one resident told Libya Channel. Fed up with months of public beheadings and enforcement of a strict interpretation of Sharia Law, people joined the fighters in attacking IS checkpoints and cutting the roads and commandeered a car from the IS Ministry of Finance shortly after the commanders were killed.
“A group drove around town shouting ‘Those who want to pray can go home to pray, those who don’t can go home to sleep – no one is going to be forced to anymore’,” said Ahmed, a resident in his fifties who could not be fully named for security reasons.
Multiple checkpoints were then spontaneously attacked in the east of the city and in neighborhoods, where IS fighters live. Abu Salim Brigade emerged from their headquarters and joined in.
“People came out with weapons they had been hiding for many months. The Shura Council armed them as well, IS were besieged in several downtown districts, forcing many commanders to surrender and hand themselves to the Shura Council,” Ahmed added.
IS attempted to send in a convoy of reinforcements from Ras Hilal – some 50km west of Derna – but were driven back when the Libyan Air Force – under the command of anti-Islamist General Khalifa Haftar – launched airstrikes on their positions.
Meanwhile IS attacked demonstrators at the city’s main Sahaba mosque, leaving at least seven dead, residents reported.
The Islamic State gained its first Libyan branch when local jihadis in the Islamist stronghold of Derna pledged allegiance to IS’s chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in October. IS then sent over a Yemeni emir – believed to be called Abu Baraa al-Azdi – causing division among extremists in Derna, who allegedly objected to a foreigner taking control.
Derna has long been controlled by Islamist militia groups, who have fortified their control of the area in the years since the 2011 uprising which overthrew Muammar Gaddafi. Successive Libyan governments have been unable to penetrate the eastern city, as soldiers, police officers and politicians were targeted by a slew of assassinations.
Just before the recent fighting erupted in Derna, IS – which contains a mix of local and international fighters – had reportedly met at the Pearl Hotel to discuss how to encourage more of the town’s militants to join their forces. The meeting was premonitory of what would follow as the rival extremist groups refused to let members sympathetic to IS attend.
This week’s fighting is the first comprehensive uprising against the international jihadi group – which has successfully conquered territory in the south and the west of the country, including most recently Sirte, which lies just a few hours across the Mediterranean from Europe.
If the rebellion is successful it would be a major blow to the group, that gained international notoriety for executing over 50 Egyptian, Eritrean and Ethiopian Christian migrants in February and April in two separate mass killings that were broadcast in gory videos.
European countries have been increasingly worried about IS’s expansion out of Syria and Iraq and into Libya which lies just across the Mediterranean from their shores. Egypt, which shares a sprawling border with Libya, launched airstrikes in February in retaliation for the killing of their citizens – amid fears Libyan jihadis could bolster the IS insurgency in the Sinai.
Residents and fighters say that IS continues to lose ground and their prisoners have been released from their headquarters, which they lost days control of days ago.
“90 percent of Derna city is now under the control of the Shura Council,” a spokesman of the group told local Libyan Nabaa TV on Sunday, adding that more than 70 IS militants had surrendered during the fighting. “Shura Council forces are dealing carefully with the snipers around the city,” he added.
“IS split up and went back to protect their houses, to secure their homes, and to hide,” Ahmed said.
“We were surprised that they retreated leaving their injured behind in the hospital.”
