Libyan officials and witnesses say the country’s Islamic State affiliate has attacked a rival Islamist group in the central city of Sirte and is shelling a residential area. A warplane could be heard later, as government forces brought in reinforcements.
Advertisement
The rival Salafist Muslim group was backed by Sirte’s armed civilians, who refused to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State under penalty of death, the BBC said.
The chairman of the high security committee in Sirt said in response, warplanes moved from Al Jufra military airbase (in the south) carried out sorties targeting elements of the Islamic State in different locations.
By noon the city was quiet, giving residents the chance to remove bodies littered in the streets, among them women and children.
“Families are leaving Sirte”, said a resident, asking, like others, not to be named.
“Dozens of people have been killed and wounded”, he said, but was unable to give a breakdown “because of the intensity of the fighting”. Fighters from Islamic State are believed to have killed the cleric for refusing to pledge allegiance to the extremist militia.
IS faced a similar battle in the eastern port city of Derna in June – the first city outside Iraq and Syria to fall to the group – and was pushed back by an al-Qaeda affiliated group.
The fighting typifies the chaos in the oil-producing country, where two governments, former rebels and Islamist groups are battling for control, four years after the ousting of veteran ruler Muammar Gaddafi.
Advertisement
A Sirte council official said earlier that the fighting erupted Tuesday as authorities in the militia-held capital Tripoli, opposed to Libya’s internationally recognised government, announced the launch of an operation to retake the city from IS.
