The beast grows bigger
Imagine your wagon is speeding at 160 km per hour and you still consider it your slowest ride. Yes, it can happen when you are running away from a city that has fallen to ISIL.
In Libya this is now a common occurrence since one city after another is falling into the hands of ISIL which has largely substituted erstwhile Ansar Sharia, Da’ish and Shura Councils of Mujahideen in many cities of the country.
They started off from Dharna in 2011 and by 2015 they have taken over Noufilia, Sirte, Abughareen. In Dharna their earliest nomenclature during and after the revolution was Shura Councils of Mujahideen, Dharna. Later they graduated themselves as Daesh then ISIL.
These extremists are presently giving a tough fight to government forces in Benghazi over which they had complete sway six months ago
Dharna is a port city in eastern Libya with a small population and lies between green mountains, the Mediterranean Sea, and the desert about 100 km away from Egypt on its Western border. It is 1500 kilometres away from Tripoli near Tobruk that houses the internationally recognised government which is ruling the country almost in absentia.
These extremists are presently giving a tough fight to government forces in Benghazi over which they had complete sway six months ago. They are a substantial threat to Islamist rival government in Misurata, Tripoli, and their surrounding areas.
Qaddafi is on record repeatedly saying that they are die-hard Islamists who are neither good for democracy nor Islam. Then, nobody was listening. America and the whole West was in for the kill.
Qaddafi finally got killed on October 20, 2011, adamantly shoring up his control over the country. His rule ended, but his legacy lives on. He took great pain to structure the society on semi-secular lines. He himself was a secular of his own kind.
The revolution has brought a new kind of Islam to Libyan society with a bang. Everyone is caught off-guard. Even the stalwarts of Libya Shield and Libya Dawn are not able to explain their role in the past. Since internal fight between Libyan Shield, Libya Dawn, Da’ish, ISIL and Ansar Sharia has ensued there is little room left for any optimism.
The Libyan Shield is kind of loose organisation comprising erstwhile militias which had fought and killed Qaddafi. They are mainly affiliated with Misurata, a city about 180 km west of Tripoli and are ideologically close to Muslim Brotherhood. Libya Shield has had a strong presence in Misurata, Benghazi, Khoms and Tripoli but it is fast losing its control on these as well as other areas to ISIL. The ISIL already has a strong and visible presence in Dharna, Sirte, Nouflia, Abugrain and their affiliated areas, almost one tenth of the country.
Libya Dawn is Libya Shield’s baby. For an ordinary person, it is enough to know that ideologically they all are the same and the only difference in them is in operational tactics.
The Libyan Shield is kind of loose organisation comprising erstwhile militias which had fought and killed Qaddafi. They are mainly affiliated with Misurata, a city about 180 km west of Tripoli and are ideologically close to Muslim Brotherhood
To take control of Tripoli Airport on July 13, 2014, Libya Dawn completely destroyed the Tripoli International Airport which is no more in use. It had almost destroyed the City altogether but for the sagacity of Zintan militia which abdicated the Airport and went back to Zantan on 23 August 2014.
Libya Dawn supports the rogue government of new General National Congress (GNC) in Tripoli which has come into being defying the people’s mandate of June 2014.
New elections in the country were held in June 2014 and when the Islamists lost the elections they refused to accept the results.
The Islamist members of GNC lead by Nouri Abusahmain like Phoenix revived themselves as New General National Congress in opposition to the will of Libya and in defiance to common sense when the country needed unity the most. They established a rival government in Tripoli in August 2014 which now is torpedoing every effort of Mr Bernardino León to bring warring factions of society together around some understanding of peaceful coexistence.
