At least nine fighters were killed in clashes on Friday between Islamic State and another Islamist force in the eastern Libyan city of Derna, a source in one group said.

Fighting had first erupted in Derna – a long-time gathering point for jihadists – on Tuesday after a leader in the Islamist umbrella group Majlis al-Shura was killed. At least 20 people were killed.

New clashes broke out in one district on Friday and nine fighters were killed, the source said. No more details were immediately available.

Islamic State and other Islamist militant groups have thrived in Libya since two rival governments began fighting for control, leaving a security vacuum four years after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.

The rapid rise in Libya of Islamic State, which first emerged in Syria and Iraq, is worrying Western powers who fear the militant group will forge a base just across the Mediterranean from mainland Europe.

The Majlis al-Shura declared holy war, or jihad, on Islamic State in Derna after Tuesday’s clashes, in which four Majlis leaders were killed.

Islamic State group has carried out attacks on oilfields and embassies and also claimed the killing of dozens of Egyptian and Ethiopian Christians. It has also attacked both governments.

The official government has been based in the east since losing the capital Tripoli in August to rival group Libya Dawn, which set up its own administration with some Islamist links.

Morocco’s intelligence services on Thursday broke up an Islamic State-affiliated terrorist cell that planned a series of kidnappings and killings on Moroccan soil, the government said on its website.

The Ministry of the Interior announced the dismantling of a network sending young people to fight in Syria.

Special security brigades have arrested, in Hammam-Lif, “ten Takfiris” who were planning to go to Syria, said the Ministry of the Interior.

“They would be linked to a person belonging to terrorist groups in Syria,” the same source added.

“Among those arrested, a Tunisian who had participated in the war in Syria,” the statement said.

With its seizure of control over Harawa last Thursday, the Islamic State (IS) group in Libya has expanded and strengthened its hold in north-central Libya, controlling the area from Sirte to Bin Jawad near the petroleum crescent region.

‌IS, which declared its presence in Egypt in October 2014, has once again emerged the greatest beneficiary of the political polarisation and civil war that have gripped the country for more than a year.

‌As for the main Libyan factions, they are taking part in the UN-sponsored dialogue process being held in Skhirat, Morocco. On 11 June representatives are due to fly to Germany to meet with the five permanent members of the Security Council.

‌In expanding and strengthening its control over a considerable stretch of Libya’s Mediterranean coast, IS has cast into relief the magnitude of the political and security vacuum caused by the conflict between rival factions. The factions have shown themselves incapable of managing the affairs of the country since the fall of the Gaddafi regime.

‌The development has also demonstrated the ability of the recently arrived extremist organisation to win over large numbers of members from Ansar Al-Sharia in Sirte, as well as its ability to rapidly subdue the inhabitants of smaller towns on the Libyan coast. They have offered material assistance and reached understandings in exchange for pardons for those residents who fought against IS in March, April and May.

‌Such tactics, combined with lack of support from either of the warring factions in the east and west, led these communities to rapidly cave in to IS demands and accept its rule. It has become obvious to the public in most parts of the country that the warring factions are not concerned with and are unwilling to seriously undertake the responsibility for curbing the spread of IS in Libya.

‌It is likely that they do not appreciate the danger of this organisation, even as they approach the international community for support to fight it, efforts toward which have not even begun in a serious manner, which again helps to account for the organisation’s ability to expand its hold over strategic parts of the country.

‌IS declared its presence in Libya in October last year when a small jihadist group in the eastern city of Derna declared its allegiance to the emir of IS, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. Subsequently, this year other groups followed suit in Sirte and to a lesser extent in Ajdabiya.

‌What is curious about the Libyan case is that all parties to the Libyan conflict, whether in the east or the west, or affiliates of the former regime, appear to converge on the notion that this serves their interests.

‌It is a situation that enhances IS’s prospects of influencing events in one way or another, regardless of the arguments of the international community and cautions on the dangers of the spread of IS in Libya.

‌The terrorist group’s presence in the central region serves the aspirations of the pro-federalist camp in Cyrenaica. The occupation divides Cyrenaica from what was formerly known as the province of Tripolitania and gives the pro-federalists concrete cause to press more forcefully for the federalist proposal.

‌Several phenomena sustain this assumption, the most important being that militia forces located near the IS- controlled area to the east essentially consist of the Petroleum Facilities Guards, who are subordinate to the House of Representatives and government in the east and are effectively the military wing of the Cyrenaican federalists.

‌These forces have so far made no attempt to confront the IS forces, despite their proximity to them and the continuous threat they pose to the major oil fields and oil ports.

‌In addition, the social composition of the members of IS in this region indicate that it was able to take advantage, with considerable speed, of the anger and frustration among the youth of the region’s tribes one of the factors that facilitated their recruitment.

‌Proof of the inroads that IS made in local recruitment is to found in statements to the press by the chairman of the Assembly of Wise Men and Shura in Sirte, Abdel-Fattah Marzouq, in April. The IS members in that city are known by name and most of them are citizens of that city, he said.

‌Because of such demographics, confronting the organisation requires close coordination between the tribes of the area. Without this the central region could plunge into civil warfare such as that now raging in the west and south.

‌According to sources from Harawa, the latest stronghold to be taken by IS, the local leaders of the town, most of the inhabitants of which belong to the Awlad Suleiman tribes, entered into negotiations with IS to prevent a massive displacement of persons from the town.

‌The negotiations concluded with an agreement that allowed IS members to enter the town unchallenged. On 14 March, IS had threatened to unleash a wave of suicide attacks against the town following the death of 23 of its operatives, including field commander Misbah Al-Jafel, Aka Abu Turab or Abu Zakariya Al-Tunisi.

‌On Friday, the preacher at one of the Harawa mosques, an IS member, instructed the people to repent, this being the step that follows the pledge of allegiance to the organisation. A similar process was carried out in the neighbouring village of Al-Noufaliay in February. There, too, IS required inhabitants “to repent from the heresy and apostasy” of which they had been guilty, according to the extremist group’s dogma.

‌Immediately upon their entrance into Harawa, IS handed over three youths whom it had held in captivity to village leaders. Among them were two brothers the organisation had recently abducted from one of the village’s more prominent families. This was supposed to be interpreted as a gesture from IS of goodwill to the townsfolk.

‌According to available information from the latest town to fall into Islamic State hands, the operatives who have set up base in Harawa are from nearby towns and villages, rather than from abroad. In fact, most of them are already familiar to local inhabitants.

‌Apparently, this too is meant to convey a message of assurance to the people: since the people from neighbouring towns and villages welcomed the organisation, the people of Harawa should feel confident in doing the same. The organisation was undoubtedly assured that they would, as it knows that the rival governments are too preoccupied with the business of strengthening their positions in the negotiating process to worry about ordinary people.

‌Libyan and other sources from Harawa reported, on 31 May, that IS demanded blood money for each of the 23 IS operatives killed during the fighting in on 14 March. The price named was 175,000 Libyan dinars ($127,750) for each. The organisation also ordered the youths who fought against IS in March to repent, warning that it had a list containing all the names of those who took part in the fighting and that it would kill them if they did not repent.

‌IS’s seizure of Harawa has driven many young men from that town to flee southwards toward Sebha for fear that IS would act on its threat of revenge. ‌Meanwhile, there were reports that leaders of the Awlad Suleiman tribe, to which most of the Harawa inhabitants belong, vowed to provide support, especially after IS members carried out three suicide bombings to break through the defences that local inhabitants had created to protect their town.

‌With Harawa, IS now controls a 140-km-long stretch of the central Libyan coastal area. Its expansion has been aided by the fear, lacking weapons and equipment, of massive displacement that drove village leaders to negotiate with and submit to IS.

‌Local sources and observers predict that other towns and villages on the coastal road between Noufaliya and Sirte will follow Harawa. Umm Al-Qandil, Umm Al-Khanfis and Bousaada are among the villages that are likely to capitulate to the IS due to their lack of faith in the ability of either of the rival authorities to come to their aid.

‌Meanwhile, rival Libyan factions continue to appeal to the international community to help them fight IS, even as they continue to fight each other. This has been perceived as a ploy to enhance their negotiating hands in the UN-sponsored dialogue process that seeks to put an end to the political crisis in Libya.

‌During the last round of talks in Skhirat, the UN envoy presented a fourth draft agreement for a solution that is expected to trigger renewed controversy, as it does not provide any guarantees for what will happen on the day after the agreement is signed.

‌Perhaps it was in anticipation of such a controversy that Germany invited the representatives of the major Libyan factions that were taking part in the Skhirat talks to come to Berlin on 11 July to meet with the permanent members of the Security Council.

‌It is expected that the representatives will hear some frank and stern warnings in the event that the factions refuse to demonstrate flexibility and make the necessary compromises to resolve the crisis.

The militant group Islamic State said it had blown up two warplanes at an air base that it had seized near the central Libyan city of Sirte.

The group published pictures on social media that it said showed the two destroyed two military aircraft.

The Islamist rebels fighters seized Sirte’s military and civilian airport two weeks ago.

Nineteen militants were killed earlier on Wednesday in clashes between local jihadists and the Islamic State (IS) affiliate in the eastern Libyan city of Derna, according to a security source.

“Three commanders of al-Qaida linking militants of Derna were killed in clashes against IS affiliate. About 16 IS affiliate militants were killed including Libyan leaders and ten foreigners,” a source from the Interior Ministry told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

“The fighting was caused by different ideology of IS fighters who came back from Syria where they fought with al-Nusra Front,” the source added.

Nasser al-Aker, a senior militant leader in Derna, was also killed on Tuesday by IS fighters, the source said.

Local residents said that the city is currently in chaos where sounds of different weapons can be heard.

Derna is currently controlled by the IS affiliate in Libya. The group recently took over the city of Sirte, some 450 km east the capital Tripoli, after the so-called 166 Battalion militia of Tripoli’s self-declared government evacuated the city.

Libya, an oil-rich north African country, has been suffering a security vacuum since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011. Since then, the country has been plagued by rival armed groups continuously fighting for dominance.

A local security source, who was not identified in reports, said a group of militants from Velayat Sinai group, previously known as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, stormed an airfield in the al-Jourah district of the volatile territory late on Tuesday, and fired a number of rockets at the site, Arabic-language newspaper al-Youm al-Saba’ reported.

Egyptian special forces then engaged the assailants, and killed 16 of the extremists during a fierce exchange of fire. There were, however, no reports of casualties on the side of the government forces.

Egyptian troopers later destroyed two vehicles loaded with light and heavy weapons as well as a considerable amount of mortar rounds.

Jourah airfield reportedly houses international peacekeepers from Australia, Canada, Colombia, Fiji, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the United States and Uruguay.

Egyptian security forces also conducted operations in the town of Sheikh Zuweid, situated 334 kilometers (214 miles) northeast of the capital, Cairo, the border town of Rafah, located 340 kilometers (211 miles) east of Cairo, as well as the city of el-Arish, situated 344 kilometers (214 miles) northeast of the Egyptian capital, and killed six militants.

Sixteen militants, among them three on a list of most wanted terrorists, were also arrested, seven militant hideouts were destroyed and 13 unlicensed motorcycles confiscated.

The Egyptian military views the Sinai Peninsula a sanctuary for extremists, who use the volatile region as a launch pad for their “acts of terror.”

Gunmen have intensified terrorist attacks in Sinai ever since Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, was toppled in a military coup led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt’s current president and the then army commander, in July 2013.

Velayat Sinai terrorists have claimed responsibility for most of the attacks in Sinai Peninsula. Last November, the group pledged allegiance to the ISIL terrorist group, which is wreaking havoc primarily in Iraq and neighboring Syria.

The leader of Derna’s Abu Sleem Brigade, Salem Derbi was seriously wounded in fighting last night between the Shoura Council of Mujahideen in Derna (SCMD) of which his brigade is a major component and Islamic State forces. There are unconfirmed reports that he died shortly being taken to hospital. It is also reported that 13 other gunmen have died in the fighting.

It broke in the west of the town out after two Abu Sleem commanders, Naser Al-Akr and Salem Al- Houiti, were murdered in the town, largely under the control of IS. The two were gunned down in Rashid Street by masked gunmen, believed to be members of IS, who then fled.

Following the killings, SCMD issued a statement declaring jihad against IS, and reportedly warning local residents to evacuate their homes.

Widely regarded as ideologically linked to Al-Qaeda, SCMD issued an ultimatum to IS last month, demanding it renounce its particular militant beliefs and stop killing other Muslims, or face the consequences. The ultimatum was read out by Derbi.

IS had already declared SCMD as apostate (murtad).

In last night’s declaration of jihad, SCMD says that IS had ignored the warnings and so now there had to be war.

Rivalry between the two groups of militants has been ongoing for more than a year. IS emerged out of what was the Shoura Council of Islamic Youth in Derna and it was condemned by the Abu Sleem brigade and Derbi in particular when it pledged its allegiance to IS.

The killing of Abu Sleem commander Mazig El Gabsi last July is also thought to gave been the work of the then Islamic Youth group.

Al-Qaida-linked militants are battling an Islamic State affiliate in eastern Libya after one of their leaders was shot dead by masked gunmen.

Nasr Akr, an al-Qaida-inspired militant once jailed in the U.K. on terrorism charges, was assassinated along with his aide in the eastern town of Darna, home to many of Libya’s veteran jihadists.

Akr’s group, known as the Shura Council of Darna’s Jihadists, announced his killing in a statement on Wednesday, blaming it on Islamic State militants and vowing retaliation.

Akr’s killing sparked heavy fighting, leaving at least nine IS militants dead, witnesses said.

IS seized control of Darna last year. The IS group began as an al-Qaida affiliate but later had a bitter falling out with the global jihadist network. The two groups have also clashed in Syria.

Egyptian officials say a suicide bomber has blown himself up at the ancient temple of Karnak in Luxor, a southern city frequented by millions of foreign and Egyptian tourists every year.

They say there is no immediate word on casualties from Wednesday’s late morning attack.

They say police have foiled two other suicide attacks also targeting the Nile-side temple, one of the country’s main tourist attractions, rivaling the pyramids at Giza.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.