After UK, Egypt Attacks, Libya Seen as Militants' Haven

BENGHAZI, LIBYA — 

The Libya connection in the May 22 Manchester concert suicide bombing and Friday's attack on Christians in Egypt has shone a light on the threat posed by militant Islamic groups that have taken advantage of lawlessness in the troubled North African nation to put down roots, recruit fighters and export jihadists to cause death and carnage elsewhere.

Libya has been embroiled in violence since a 2011 uprising toppled and killed Moammar Gadhafi. Vast and oil-rich, Libya currently has rival administrations, an army led by a Gadhafi-era general as well as powerful Islamist militias that compete for territory, resources and political leverage.

At the peak of its power in Libya, the Islamic State group controlled a 160-kilometer (100-mile) stretch of Libyan coastline and boasted between 2,000 and 5,000 fighters, many of them from Egypt and Tunisia.

It is that Libya that the alleged Manchester bomber, 22-year-old British citizen Salman Abedi, found when he and his family moved back from Britain after Gadhafi's ouster in 2011.

Monday's bombing left 22 dead, including an 8-year-old girl, and was claimed by IS. Abedi's brother Hashim has been taken into custody in Tripoli and, according to Libyan authorities, has confessed that he and Salman were IS members.

In Egypt, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi sent his fighter-jets to bomb militant positions in eastern Libya just hours after IS fighters shot dead 29 Christians on their way to a remote desert monastery. The military said the attackers were trained in Libya.

Egypt also has long complained that weapons smuggled across the porous desert border with Libya have reached militants operating on its soil. It also has claimed that militants who bombed three Christian churches since December received military training in IS bases in Libya.

Genesis of Libya's militancy:

Hundreds of Libyan youths answered the call to Jihad in the 1980s, traveling to Afghanistan to fight against the Russians. When they returned home after the war, Many of them wanted Islamic Sharia laws implemented in their country. They formed underground cells to escape the regime's watchful eyes and unsuccessfully tried to assassinate Gadhafi.

After Gadhafi's fall, veteran jihadists, al-Qaida sympathizers and Islamists of all shades formed militias that filled the post-Gadhafi power vacuum. Libya's present woes are rooted in the failure of the very first transitional government to dismantle those militias and integrate them into a national army. Instead, they carved up Libya into fiefdoms.

Where are the militants now?

Darna: The eastern Libyan city, where militant positions were targeted by Egyptian warplanes on Friday, has historically been a bastion of radical Islamic groups as well as highly respected Islamic scholars. Extremists made the city their stronghold in the 1980s and 1990s, protected by the rugged terrain of the surrounding Green Mountain range. It was the main source of Libyan jihadists for the insurgency in Iraq. Entire brigades of Darna natives are known to be fighting in Syria's civil war.

During the 2011 uprising, residents formed the "Abusaleem Martyrs" brigade to fight Gadhafi loyalists. It proved to be one of the most effective rebel outfits. Its ranks soon later swelled and its fighters seized the city, setting up the Darna Mujahideen Shura Council to replace the local government.

The Islamic State group's Libyan affiliate had a robust presence in Darna, but the IS faction eventually fell out with the council and was driven out. The IS fighters relocated to the coastal city of Sirte and Darna remains to this day under the control of the Mujahideen Shura Council.

Benghazi: Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, was the first to fall under the influence of extremist Islamic militias. Many of those militias were formed to fight the Gadhafi regime in 2011 and were led by radicals, widely viewed as experienced and motivated.

Perhaps the most notorious of the Benghazi militias is Ansar Al-Sharia, blamed for the killings of hundreds of former Libyan soldiers and for the death of the U.S. ambassador in 2012.

For more than two years, the so-called Libyan National Army led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter has battled an alliance of Benghazi's militias. His forces have managed to secure most of the city, except for pockets of a seaside neighborhood, heavily fortified and surrounded by fields of land mines.

Sirte: Sirte was where Gadhafi and his loyalists made a last stand in the 2011 civil war. The city, Gadhafi's hometown, was almost completely destroyed in the fighting. Furious over the city's loyalty to Gadhafi, anti-government rebels punished the city's residents with extrajudicial killings and revenge attacks.

In 2013, Sirte fell under the control of Ansar Al-Sharia, which made alliances with local tribes and an uneasy truce with other militias and the small number of remaining army troops. The group took over a sprawling former Gadhafi compound and boasted its own TV and radio station. IS also slowly infiltrated the city as fighters from countries like Mali, Tunisia, Egypt and Syria moved in and later declared Sirte an IS emirate.

Last year, militiamen from Misrata and other localities in western Libya, acting with the support of a U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, waged a protracted and bloody campaign to drive IS militants from Sirte. When fighting stalled, the government sought support from the United States, which responded with airstrikes that sped up the collapse of IS in the city.

IS was finally defeated in Sirte and the fighters who survived the carnage fled to the vast deserts to the south.

Sebratha: Sebratha has earned a reputation as a small but tenacious stronghold of Islamic radicals, something that made it easier for IS militants to find a foothold there and spawned a lucrative business in human trafficking to Europe. The city is the main IS gateway due to its location near the Tunisian border. The jumble of various militias have helped IS keep a low profile in the city, but a 2016 U.S. airstrike that killed about 40 of the group's operatives highlighted their presence in Sebratha.

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Syrian Civilians Flee Towns Hit by Coalition Airstrikes

Monitors said hundreds of Syrian civilians were fleeing two jihadist-occupied towns near the Iraqi border on Saturday, after a series of airstrikes targeted buildings sheltering extremist fighters and their families.

Accounts from witnesses said airstrikes on the Euphrates River towns of Mayadeen and Abu Kamal began earlier Friday and forced large numbers of residents into the countryside. The Islamic State group controls most of the oil-rich border region, and reports from the scene said the families of many IS fighters were among the civilians fleeing for their lives.

Multiple reports from witnesses said the airstrikes were carried out by warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition that has been targeting IS positions in Syria and Iraq since 2014.

Pentagon 'assessing' reports

Monitors from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 80 relatives of IS fighters were killed Friday, including 33 children. That report could not be independently verified, however.

The Pentagon has acknowledged there were coalition airstrikes in the region on Thursday and Friday. A spokesman said U.S. analysts were "still assessing the results of those strikes."

"We take all allegations of civilian casualties seriously," said Captain Jeff Davis.

Coalition airstrikes increasing

Earlier this month, at least 62 people, including more than 40 civilians, were killed in similar airstrikes at Albu Kamal, a border city once home to more than 40,000 people.

Apart from the latest incidents involving possible civilian casualties, the Pentagon said coalition airstrikes in Syria and neighboring Iraq have unintentionally killed 352 civilians since September 2014.

Analysts have reported an uptick in coalition airstrikes in both Syria and Iraq since the extremist group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people Monday and wounded more than 100 others.

U.N. plea: Protect civilians

In a related development Friday, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein implored commanders on all sides of the long-running Syrian war to take greater precautions when attempting to distinguish between military targets and those that also may contain civilians.

"Unfortunately, scant attention is being paid by the outside world to the appalling predicament of the civilians trapped" in eastern Syria, Zeid said.

"Civilians should always be protected," he said, "whether they are in areas controlled by [Islamic State] or by any other party."

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Iraqi Forces Begin Bid to Take Final IS Enclave in Mosul

BAGHDAD / MOSUL — 

Iraqi armed forces launched an operation Saturday to capture the last Islamic State-held enclave in Mosul, according to a military statement.

The fall of the city would, in effect, mark the end of the Iraqi half of the "caliphate" declared nearly three years ago by IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, which also covers parts of Syria.

The enclave includes the Old City center and three adjacent districts along the western bank of the Tigris river.

The U.S.-backed offensive in Mosul, now in its eighth month, has taken longer than planned as the militants are dug in among civilians.

"The joint forces have began liberating the remaining districts," an Iraqi military statement said.

Another military statement announced the deaths of two Iraqi colonels during the fighting Saturday.

Desperate civilians trapped behind Islamic State lines now face a harrowing situation with little food and water, no electricity and limited access to hospitals.

The Iraqi air force dropped leaflets on Friday urging residents to flee, but humanitarian groups say they fear for the safety of those trying to escape.

Al-Nuri mosque

The push inside the Old City coincided with the start of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. The offensive's prime target is the medieval al-Nuri mosque with its landmark leaning minaret, where the IS black flag has been flying since mid-2014.

Iraqi armed forces hope to capture the mosque — where Baghdadi announced the "caliphate" — in the next few days. Residents in the Old City sounded desperate in telephone interviews over the past few days.

"We're waiting for death at any moment, either by bombing or starving," one said, asking not to be identified. "Adults eat one meal a day, either flour or lentil soup."

The United Nations expressed deep concern for the hundreds of thousands of civilians behind Islamic State lines, in a statement Saturday from the organization's undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, Stephen O'Brien.

"Although the U.N. is not present in the areas where fighting is occurring, we have received very disturbing reports of families being shut inside booby-trapped homes and of children being deliberately targeted by snipers," he said.

Residents said millet, usually used as bird feed, is being cooked like rice as food prices increased tenfold. People were seen collecting wild mallow plants in abandoned lots and also eating mulberry leaves and other plants.

About 700,000 people, about a third of the pre-war city's population, have already fled, seeking refuge either with friends and relatives or in camps.

The insurgents are also retreating in Syria, mainly in the face of U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces.

Further fighting

The insurgency is expected to continue in the sparsely populated desert region along the Syrian border even if Mosul is fully captured.

Iranian-backed Shi'ite paramilitary forces are fighting Islamic State in that part of the country where Baghdadi is believed to be, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

On Saturday, Iran announced for the first time the death of a senior commander during the operations launched in October to drive the Islamist militants out of Mosul and the surrounding Nineveh province.

Shaaban Nassiri, a senior commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was killed west of Mosul, near the border with Syria, according to Mashregh, an Iranian news website.

The IRGC is the main backer of the Iraqi Shi'ite paramilitary force known as Popular Mobilization. Iraq's Shi'ite-led government is aiming to control the border in coordination with the Iranian-backed Syrian army.

Linking up the two sides would give Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a significant advantage in the six-year rebellion against his rule.

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Two Influential Somali Clerics Reject Violence as Ramadan Begins

Based on confirmed sightings of Ramadan's new moon crescent, millions of Muslims around the world are fasting on the first day of the holy month. According to Islam, the sighting of the new moon marks the beginning of the Muslim lunar month of Ramadan.

Thirty-three countries, mainly those in which the majority of residents are Sunni Muslims, officially started Ramadan on Saturday. Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Shi'ite Muslims in Iraq declared Sunday to be their first day of Ramadan.

During Ramadan, which is the holiest and the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, Muslims abstain from food, drink, sex and immoral acts from sunrise to sunset. It is one of the most important Muslim practices — the Five Pillars of Islam — and just the second below the shahada, which is the sincere recitation of the Muslim profession of faith.

In Ramadan, fasting and carrying out the other Islamic obligations provide the framework of a Muslim's life.

But in contrast with these Islamic values, the Islamic State and other terrorist groups in the world, like al-Shabab in Somalia, use the holy month to call for more violence against the West and other Muslim counties by attacking innocents and civilians.

This year, Ramadan begins as the world mourns the loss of innocent victims of barbaric terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Egypt.

Messages from clerics

Moderate Muslim clerics across the world started Ramadan with messages to the world emphasizing that acts of terrorism and violence are directly contrary to the spirit of Ramadan.

"Ramadan is a month of peace, love and respect for all, but not a month of violence and bloodshed. Those calling for mayhem do not represent Islam and Muslims," said Sheikh Bashir Ahmed Salad, an influential cleric and the chairman of the Council of Religious Scholars of Somalia.

In Britain, Muslim leaders called for calm and special prayers for the victims of the Manchester bombing.

Muslims in America are observing Ramadan this year for the first time under President Donald Trump. In a statement on Ramadan, Trump focused on violence and terrorism.

"At its core, the spirit of Ramadan strengthens awareness of our shared obligation to reject violence, to pursue peace, and to give to those in need who are suffering from poverty or conflict," Trump's statement said.

Imam Sharif Mohamed of Islamic Civic Society of America at Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque in Minneapolis said the president's message was different from the Ramadan massages of former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

"Unlike Obama and George Bush, Trump mainly focused on the fight against terrorism in his Ramadan statement," said Sharif. "His statement only represented his election campaign and the anti-Muslim rhetoric he was notorious with."

Taking Heart

In Minnesota, the Muslim American Society and Minnesota Council of Churches continue a program called Taking Heart to bring Christians and members of other faith communities together with Muslims for food and conversation.

"For many years, Minnesota mosques and Islamic Community Centers and mosques like ours, we have been running such programs where we sit with non-Muslim neighbors for a traditional Ramadan iftar, inviting a time of learning and encounter," Sharif said.

"Our faith, Islamic faith, obliges us to follow the message of tolerance, co-existence, and to publicly condemn violence, extremism, any form of that," he said.

Growing in popularity, Taking Heart saw more than 800 non-Muslims attend open-house iftar dinners in 2016.

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Iran's Supreme Leader: Saudi Arabia is 'Cow Milked' by US

Iran's Supreme Leader has said that Saudi Arabia is a "cow being milked" by the United States.

A Saturday report by the semi-official Fars news agency quotes Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying that Saudi Arabia trades its wealth with "pagans and enemies."

"The stupid Saudi government thinks it can attract the friendship of enemies by giving them money," said Khamenei.

Khamenei added that bastion of Islam Saudi Arabia is "cruel toward believers and kind toward pagans."

President Donald Trump signed a $110 billion weapons deal with Saudi Arabia during his visit to kingdom last week.

Majority Shiite Iran and predominantly Sunni Saudi Arabia support opposite sites in the conflicts in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East.

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Two Documentaries Tell Different Stories About Refugee Issue

Two documentaries shed light on the hardships Syrian refugees and how they're regarded by the world. One tells the story of a town in northern Syria seized by Islamic State militants in 2014, turning its inhabitants into refugees. Another focuses on a Bulgarian village's debate over what to do with the refugees crossing into their lands from Turkey. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.

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Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Egypt Attack

The Islamic State group on Saturday claimed responsibility for the attack on a bus carrying Christians on their way to a remote desert monastery south of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, which killed 29.

Egypt responded to Friday's attack by launching a series of airstrikes that targeted what it said were militant bases in eastern Libya in which the assailants were trained. On Saturday, the military said on its official Facebook page that the airstrikes were continuing "day and night" and that they have "completely" destroyed their targets. It gave no details.

"What you've seen today will not go unpunished. An extremely painful strike has been dealt to the bases. Egypt will never hesitate to strike terror bases anywhere," President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said in a televised address to the nation late Friday. He said the attacks on Christians aimed at driving a wedge between them and the country's Muslim majority.

He also appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump to lead the global war against terror.

The claim, published by the group's Aamaq news agency, takes to four the number of deadly attacks targeting Christians since December that the extremist group says it's behind. It put the death toll at 32, but there was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.

In all, the four attacks — Friday's, two in April and one in December — killed at least 104 people, mostly Christians. El-Sissi declared a three-month state of emergency following April's twin attacks, which fell on Palm Sunday.

The Egyptian Cabinet, meanwhile, said 13 victims of Friday's carnage remained hospitalized in Cairo and Minya province, where the attack took place. The bloodshed came on the eve of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

El-Sissi told Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, in a phone call late on Friday that his government would not rest until the perpetrators of the attack were punished.

Egypt's government has been struggling to contain an insurgency by Islamic militants led by an IS affiliate that is centered in the northern region of the Sinai peninsula, though attacks on the mainland have recently increased.

After a visit to Egypt last month by Pope Francis, IS vowed to escalate attacks against Christians and urged Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and Western embassies.

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