An Ajdabiya imam was murdered when a car bomb exploded beneath his vehicle in a busy central street.

Sheikh Suleiman Kabylie, a Salafist teacher at the Tawhid mosque had been an outspoken critic of IS, both preaching against the terrorists and denouncing them on his social media page.

He was killed immediately in the blast when his vehicle was in the town’s Benghazi Street yesterday evening. An IS web site later claimed responsibility.

Kabyle’s death comes just ten days after the failed assassination of another Salafist iman in the town, in a similar car bomb attack.  Sheikh Mohammed Bodiam escaped serious injury but his nephew was killed.

The following day terrorists slew the local army intelligence chief Colonel Ataya Al-Arabi in a hail of gunfire after he had driven up to his home.

Egypt received four F-16 fighter jets from the US in what the American Ambassador to Egypt described on Thursday as “another step forward in US-Egyptian cooperation on fighting terror.”

The delivery comes on the heels of the revival of the US-Egypt joint production of military tanks M1A1 in the Egyptian Tank Plant 200, a military factory located in Helwan’s industrial zone, south of Cairo.

The joint production facility is said to employ more than 2,500, reported state-run MENA news agency.

This is not the first delivery of F-16s to Egypt. In July, Egypt received eight F-16 Block 52 aircrafts from the US in addition to five M1A1 Abrams Tank turrets.

The delivery of the tanks was preceded by the delivery of two fast missile naval vessels in June to the port of Alexandria “in support of Egypt’s security”, said the US embassy then.

This is all part of the US administration’s commitment to provide an annual $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt.

Egypt-U.S. relations were strained when the US temporarily suspended its military aid to the Middle Eastern country following the army’s ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, after protests against his rule.

albawaba.com

Unidentified warplanes have carried out air strikes on Libya’s Sirte city, targeting areas controlled by Islamic State militants in the south and west, an eyewitness said on Thursday.

The strikes were the second on Islamic State in the city this month. Neither of Libya’s rival governments nor other warring factions immediately claimed responsibility.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has told the US, Russia, China and European countries that his country rejects any threats to the national unity of Libya, Anadolu news agency has reported.

Citing a diplomatic source who works at the Algerian foreign ministry, Anadolu said that Bouteflika’s communication followed the receipt of high level information about a proposal to divide Libya on a federal or confederal basis. “Algeria is making an effort to convince the world’s major countries to reject the proposal and preserve Libya’s political unity,” claimed the anonymous source. He added that Algeria has told other Arab states of the proposal and Bouteflika’s response.

A specialist in international relations at the University of Oran, Dr Rajaa Jathri, told Anadolu, “Algeria has a solid foreign policy to maintain the borders inherited from the colonial period and preserve the territorial integrity of neighbouring countries.” Jathri believes that this policy stems from the idea that any division of neighbouring countries could have repercussions on the political and security situation in Algeria.

In 2012, Algeria rejected the separation of the Azawad territory from Mali and managed, in cooperation with other African countries and France, to reunite the short-lived unrecognised state with Mali by hosting rounds of dialogue for several months.

middleeastmonitor.com

Egypt has extended by three months a state of emergency imposed on parts of Northern Sinai as the military mounts counter-insurgency operations against Islamist militants, the government said on Wednesday.

Insurgents have killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen in Sinai since mid-2013 after the overthrow by then-military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi following mass protests against his rule.

The state of emergency extension, announced by now President Sisi in a written decree on Wednesday, will be implemented in Rafah, al-Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and surrounding areas starting retroactively from Tuesday and also extends a night-time curfew.

The measure was first introduced exactly one year ago after 33 security personnel were killed in an attack at a checkpoint in northern Sinai. It was extended by three months in January, April, and July. The attack was claimed by Sinai Province, an affiliate of Islamic State, which earlier changed its name from Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis.

The group, which aims to topple the government in Cairo, has mainly focused on targets in Sinai. The military announced an operation on Sept 7 carried out by joint units from the military and the police against militants in Sinai. The military said it killed 535 militants in just two weeks during the first phase of the operation.

thenews.com.pk

When Islamic State militants attacked a perimeter gate guarding Libya’s Es Sider oil terminal this month, they sent gunmen to kill guards before attempting to detonate a car bomb in a bid to breach the port’s defences.

The assault failed to get closer than a mile (1.6 km) from one of Libya’s major oil ports, but it signalled Islamic State’s intent to expand beyond their base in the city of Sirte and target the OPEC state’s oil infrastructure.

Four years after the fall of leader Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is in a conflict with two rival governments each backed by competing armed factions, creating a power vacuum that has allowed Islamic State to establish a foothold in North Africa.

It was not the first Islamic State attack on Libyan oil. But the country’s petroleum industry is already battered by conflict and protests, producing less than half the output of 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) it had in 2011.

In its Middle East heartland, where it controls large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State has accessed revenue from oilfields. Terrorism experts estimate its income at $2.9 billion a year, much of it from oil and gas.

In Libya, though, Islamic State is still consolidating. It co-opts domestic Islamist ranks, but faces rival armed factions with strong local ties. That resistance and the structure of Libya’s energy industry and export system may also prevent Islamic State from controlling assets and revenue.

But as chaos deepens, so do its opportunities.

With Sirte as a base, earlier this year Islamic State fighters attacked several nearby oilfields, capturing and killing several foreign contractors and disrupting oil production in the area.

Libya’s oil sector is still in turmoil. Production is at around 500,000 bpd, several oilfields are closed due to fighting among rivals or protests, and two key export terminals, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, have been shut since December.

“No doubt, we have an obstacle which is Islamic State, especially in the middle region of Libya,” the oil minister for Tripoli’s government, Mashallah Zwei, told Reuters. “But Islamic State in Libya is different to Iraq and Syria.”

The attack on Es Sider’s perimeter earlier this month looked a typical hit-and-run strike of a group facing a stronger opponent rather than an orchestrated takeover. Gunmen in several vehicles opened fire with Kalashnikov rifles and heavy machine guns at a gate around 700 metres west of the port.

One guard, belonging to a federalist force allied with the recognised government, was killed and two others wounded. Militants tried to detonate a car-bomb at the gate, but four of them were shot dead, security officials said.

Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, with a total export capacity of 500,000 bpd, have been closed since December because of fighting between federalist forces controlling the ports and brigades allied with Tripoli’s self-styled government who vowed to take them back.

“Islamic State has realised that the largest factions are more interested in fighting each other,” said Mattia Toaldo, Libya specialist at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “It is expanding in central Libya, encountering little resistance.”

ON-THE-GROUND REALITIES

Since the NATO-backed revolt toppled Gaddafi, Libya has fractured into a complex jigsaw of rival brigades of ex-rebels, tribal factions and Islamist-leaning forces who have steadily turned against one another in an internecine battle for control.

Tripoli has been held since last year by Libya Dawn, an alliance of armed factions from the port city of Misrata and Islamist-leaning fighters who drove rivals out of the capital and set up their own self-declared government.

Libya’s internationally recognised government and elected parliament now operate out of Tobruk in the east, backed by a loose coalition of armed forces, including ex-Gaddafi ally General Khalifa Haftar and the federalists controlling the ports.

Powerful armed factions hold different areas and cities and their loyalties are often more aligned with local interests, complicating U.N. attempts to negotiate a unity government.

Libya’s oilfields and ports also sit in areas held by competing factions, allowing one armed group to cut off a pipeline, for example, to pressure another.

In March, Islamic State made its first major move on oil, storming and damaging several Libyan oilfields around al-Ghani. That forced the government to declare force majeure, and shut down production at 11 oilfields in the central Sirte basin. Eleven guards were killed, several by beheading.

But there was no attempt to hold fields and secure revenue as Islamic State has done in Iraq and Syria. The aim was destruction.

“The profile of the sector is just too different from that of Iraq,” said Geoff Porter at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center. “If Islamic State can get even temporary chokeholds on the sector then it can weaken its opponents and buy itself time to consolidate its position.”

TOUGH REVIVAL

Even before Islamic State’s arrival, Libya’s oil industry has been in almost constant flux since Gaddafi’s fall, held or taken over by one of the country’s competing armed forces rather than any central government.

Low oil production is cutting into energy revenues that pay for most of the national budget. The situation has been further complicated by the rivalries between the two governments, who both appointed state oil officials and energy ministers.

Relations between competing forces controlling oil ports and the Al-Ryayna pipeline leading from the key El Sharara oilfield to ports illustrate the complexities of bringing output back.

Tripoli says it is negotiating with tribal elders to lift a blockade on the pipeline carrying crude through an area controlled by forces from the town of Zintan, who oppose the Tripoli authorities.

But Zintan forces deny any talks with Tripoli’s government, saying the fields were closed as a precaution by oil guards after recent Islamist attacks on southern fields.

“There are no consultations with the ministry of oil and gas in Tripoli as it is not legitimate,” the mayor of Zintan, Mustafa Al-Barouni, said.

Tripoli state news agency LANA said another oilfield, El Feel, may be reopened within days after a deal to pay guards’ salaries. But one commander said they still had not been officially told to restart and must wait for the Al-Ryayna pipeline to open.

Early last year, federalist forces commanded by Ibrahim al-Jathran ended months of blockades of the four major oil ports, including Es Sider, that his forces control, after threatening to bypass the government and sell oil himself.

His forces since battled the Tripoli faction this year when they tried to retake Es Sider. But he also recently split with forces backing the recognised government.

U.N. efforts to broker a unity government among the main factions have stalled, and a failure to bring all on board only leaves Islamic State more chance to target oil again.

“Their goal is to maximise the impact of their operations on oil production while minimising losses,” Riccardo Fabiani, North Africa analyst at Eurasia Group, said. “They are likely to continue to do so.”

trust.org

Europe’s military operation to seize and destroy boats used by migrant smugglers in the Mediterranean will not work unless it has access to Libyan territory, its deputy commander said Tuesday.

For the past three weeks, Operation Sophia has been operating in international waters, charged with arresting smugglers and seizing their vessels as Europe tries to stem the flow of migrants making the perilous sea crossing.

But it has so far not seized any vessels or made any arrests, and its number two Rear Admiral Herve Blejean said that until the operation takes to Libyan waters — which it is currently not allowed to do — it will have little impact.

“The operation will only be effective when we can work close to the (smuggler) networks, go after the big fish not the little ones who go out to sea,” Blejean said at a press conference in Rome.

“So at some point, it will have to work within Libyan territory,” he said, referring to the need to tackle those running smuggler networks rather than those lower down the chain who accompany the migrants on their crossing.

Blejean, a former commander of the EU’s counter-piracy Operation Atalanta, said tackling pirates off Somalia had been possible “without really changing anything in Somalia itself”.

But “there is no way we can do the same in the operation now”, he warned.

While Sophia can help prevent deaths at sea, blocking the departure of vulnerable migrants in Libya — estimated to be between 500,000 and one million people — will leave them trapped and “create a situation worse than we expected”.

The business has become a key part of Libya’s economy, bringing in between 67,000 euros ($74,000) for a dinghy carrying 100 people, to 380,000 euros for a wooden boat carrying 400 people.

“In certain coastal zones, we estimate 50 percent of revenue comes from illegal migration,” Blejean said, adding that any intervention against smuggling would have to envisage an economic plan to reboot those areas.

Any intervention in Libya would require a UN Security Council endorsement and the green light from the Libyan government — neither of which appear forthcoming.

All 25 people on board a civilian helicopter, which crashed west of the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Monday, were killed, the Erem News web portal reported Tuesday.