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NEW YORK The bomber who killed 22 people at a pop concert in Manchester, England, last month had met in Libya with members of an Islamic State unit linked to the November 2015 Paris terrorist attack, according to current and retired intelligence officials.

The content of the communications between the attacker, Salman Abedi, and the terrorist cell remains unknown.

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But the possibility that he was directed or enabled by Islamic State operatives in Libya, as opposed to Syria, suggests that even as the groups Middle East base is shrinking, at least one of its remote franchises is developing ways to continue attacks within Europe.

On visits to Tripoli as well as to the coastal Libyan town of Sabratha, Abedi met with operatives of the Katibat al-Battar al-Libi, a core Islamic State unit that was headquartered in Syria before some of its members dispersed to Libya.

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Originally made up of Libyans who had gone to Syria to fight in the civil war, the unit became a magnet for French and Belgian foreign fighters, and several were dispatched to carry out attacks abroad.

Some of the terrorist groups most devastating hits in Europe, including the coordinated attack in Paris in 2015, were shaped by alumni of the brigade.

The contacts between Abedi and Battar members occurred when he went to Libya, especially in Tripoli and Sabratha, according to a retired European intelligence chief, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the case.

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The former official added that Abedi kept up contact with the group after returning to Manchester, his hometown.

When Abedi was in Britain, the contacts would sometimes happen by phone, the retired official said.

If the content of the call was sensitive, Abedi used phones that were disposable, or dispatches were sent from Libya by his contacts to his friend living in Germany or Belgium who then sent it to Abedi in Britain, according to the former intelligence chief.

Abedis contacts with the Battar brigade members in Libya though not the details of the methods used to communicate or the specific locations were confirmed by a senior US intelligence official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Both officials said Abedis activities in Libya remained the focus of intensive investigations.

The leaders of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, have been actively coordinating with loyalists in Libya since at least the start of 2015, sending personnel back from Syria to help them establish their fledgling colony. Their Libyan province, headquartered in the port city of Sirte, grew to become their most important outside of Iraq and Syria.

After nearly two years, the Libyan branch recently lost ground, with its forces routed from more than 100 miles of coastline.

But no one believes the group has been destroyed there instead it has dispersed, while maintaining its operational abilities.

The Battar brigade was formed by Libyan fighters who were seasoned veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

It was among the first foreign jihadi contingent to arrive in Syria in 2012, as the countrys popular revolt was sliding into a broader civil war and Islamist insurgency, said Cameron Colquhoun, formerly a senior counterterrorism analyst at Britains Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, its surveillance and intelligence agency.

One of the things I remember from my time is the fact that some of the baddest dudes in Al Qaeda were Libyan, he said, citing a study of seized Qaeda personnel files by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, showing that as far back as 2007, almost 20 percent of the terrorist groups fighters in Iraq were from Libya.

When I looked at the Islamic State, the same thing was happening, said Colquhoun, who now runs Neon Century, a corporate intelligence consultancy in London. They were the most hard-core, the most violent the ones always willing to go to extremes when others were not. The Libyans represented the elite troops, and clearly ISIS capitalized on this.

Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a researcher at the Middle East Forum who maintains an archive of original Islamic State documents, said the Libyan brigade was an important fighting contingent.

But after the Islamic State declared it was founding a caliphate in 2014, the unit was dissolved, as the ISIS leadership began trying to prevent the rise of battalions based on nationality or ethnicity.

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ISIS ties to Libya become a focus in UK attack - The Boston Globe

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June 7, 2017, 10:50 AM EDT June 7, 2017, 11:42 AM EDT

Libyas biggest oil field shut down due to a protest by workers, stalling a revival in thepolitically divided countrys production of crude.

Sharara closed on Wednesday, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because they arent authorized to speak to the media. Workers are protesting a colleagues death at the field, halting about 270,000 barrels a day, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because theyre not allowed to speak to the media.

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Before the halt, Libyas oil output was at its highest since October 2014, when the country pumped 850,000 barrels a day. The recent increase, along with higher production from Nigeria and swelling stockpiles in the U.S., were undermining OPECs strategy to re-balance the market and prop up prices. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied suppliers agreed on May 25 to extend a deal to cut output until the end of March to battle a global oversupply.

The shutdown is only temporary and a force majeure is unlikely to be declared, an NOC official said. Mustafa Sanalla, head of the state oil company, didnt answer phone calls or text messages seeking comment.

Crude from Sharara in western Libya had resumed flowingto the Zawiya refinery in late April, after a three-week closure. El Feel, a field also known as Elephant, re-started in April as well, after having been halted since April 2015.

Libya, with Africas biggest crude reserves, pumped as much as 1.6 million barrels a day before a political uprising in 2011.

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Libya's Biggest Oil Field Said Halted by Workers' Protest - Bloomberg

DAILYEXPRESS

They are among the masses of victims of ongoing troubles in Libya who are fleeing across the Mediterranean in packed-out, dangerous dinghies.

Thousands of people, mostly victims of atrocious crimes, are being rescued every week, with record numbers expected in 2017.

European Union officials have made a push to stop the flow of migrants by controversially funding and training the officially recognised Libyan coastguard, under plans to spend 78m on the issue.

The move has been branded dangerous by charities in the Mediterranean who have heard first-hand how bad life is in the country.

It was very hard. Every day I tried because you cannot even sleep

Kelly

Express.co.uk has spoken to victims in boats in Mediterranean but is not giving their real names for fear of reprisals.

One woman, Sally, who was aboard the Golfo Azzurro run by Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, broke down as she recounted how she was gang raped by police officers in Sudan.

The 31-year-old was dragged off a bus with three other women, pinned down at the side of the road and raped by more than a dozen officers.

Now, Sally is carrying his child.

DAILYEXPRESS

Another woman, Kelly, aged 24, from Nigeria, is one of many women who was promised work and passage through Libya, but was captured and sold to an Arab family who tortured her on a daily basis.

Once top of her class at school she ended up being locked in a cupboard, sleeping on the floor with dogs and working 20 hours per day for no money.

The Nigerian woman fled her home after Boko Haram terrorists shot her sister dead.

She was kidnapped after leaving Abudja and told since she could not pay for release she would be a slave for five years.

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Babies were among the 389 rescued

As well as emotional damage she has a horrendous scar in the shape of an iron after it was held on her leg by the family who took her.

Kelly said: It was very hard. Every day I tried because you cannot even sleep.

"They will beat you and they tied me up with my hands and legs so I could not run away.

"One day I said to the woman I want to leave - if she wants to kill me then she can.

DAILYEXPRESS

"She called her daughter and they both tied me up. She plugged in an iron and they burnt my body.

They liked to beat us and to see us cry it made them very happy.

"Then after they burnt me they told me to leave.

"I ended up sleeping on the streets."

While sleeping on the streets the woman was raped and now is now pregnant with her rapists baby.

Like many others, Kelly believes asylum in Europe is her best chance of a new start.

Men accompanying them on the perilous journey between Tripoli and Italian shores have equally harrowing stories to tell.

Sophisticated smuggling rings have been offering work in Libya to young men who struggle to find employment in African nations.

Fred, 18, from Nigeria was taken to a farm where his two friends were beaten to death in front of him.

He said: If you trust someone they can take you and they will sell you.

"You work for no money. It is the hardest life. Libya is a bad, bad place."

Despite repeated testimonies from immigrants to the European shores, the 28-member state bloc has continued to push for more co-operation with the recognised government in the country.

DAILYEXPRESS

Militias, gangs, smugglers and corrupted officials have been allegedly actively involved in the sale of human life and torture.

Yet, in February the EU backed the Malta declaration which set out plans to stop migrants leaving Libya.

Those who reach EU borders claim being sent back would be a death sentence as they will be forced to return into the arms of their captors.

Yet the EU has set asylum targets which it is trying, and failing, to stick to.

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Gang rape, slave markets and mass kidnapping: The TRUTH about EU-funded Libya - Express.co.uk

Archaeologists have unearthed statues, elaborate mosaics and other treasures in a 1,700-year old villa in Ptolemais, a key trading port for the ancient Romans on the Libyan coast.

The artifacts and a hoard of 553 sestercii silver and bronze coins hailing back to Republican times were found in a vast building about 600 square meters in area, dating to the 3rd century C.E.

Most of the coins were found inside a room inside the house where terracotta lamps were manufactured. The coins may have been the earnings of local craftsmen, said archaeologist Jerzy Zelazowski of Warsaw University.

The ancient city was established almost 2,300 years ago, at the turn of the 4th century B.C.E., by ancient Greeks. Its original name is not known, but it gained the name "Ptolemais" during the reign of the Ptolemaic empire over Egypt.

The Ptolemaic Kingdom had been founded in 305 B.C.E. by Ptolemy I Soter, whose Hellenistic dynasty ruled a vast area stretching from Syria to Nubia, with its capital in Alexandria. The Ptolemaic rulers declared themselves successors to the Egyptian Pharaohs: the famed Cleopatra was a daughter of the late Ptolemaic ruler Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos.

As the power of the Romans rose, however, that of the Ptolemys waned, and they began losing territory to Macedonia and the Seleucids. Hoping to preserve what they had, the Ptolemies became vassals of the Romans. Cleopatra's father would pay the Romans through the nose in order to secure his dynasty, but after his death, Cleopatra ultimately failed to hold onto power.

In 96 B.C.E. the entire province of Cyrenaica, including Ptolemais, was handed over to the Romans peacefully (400 years before the house in question was built).

Rome however showed little interest in their new province, which deteriorated into a pirates nest. Not until the Wars of Mithradates (between the Roman Empire and the tiny Kingdon of Pontus south of the Black Sea, ruled by King Mithradates IV) in the 1st century C.E., did the Romans make an effort to restore order to Cyrenaica, to Romanize the locals and while about it, to resolve conflicts brewing between the Greeks and Jews living in the province.

Images of the gods

The villa with the recovered mosaics was built hundreds of years later around a courtyard in classic Roman peristyle arrangement. Among the loveliest of its mosaics is one depicting a sleeping Dionysus and Ariadne a daughter of King Minos, who according to legend, would become the god's wife.

Another mosaic depicts the Achillean cycle (the collection of epic poems about Achilles' adventures) representing Achilles on the island of Skyros where his mother, fearful that he would meet his death at Troy, dressed him as a girl to avoid military recruiters.

Two other mosaics in the villa, one in the courtyard and one in the dining room, bear the name "Leukaktios". The name was superimposed on the stonework at a later date, possibly due to ownership change during its centuries of occupation.

The villa walls bore colorful frescos, imitating marble revetments with geometric designs. Several walls are covered with figural paintings, mainly depicting various species of birds.

The end of this elegant house, after centuries of occupation, was probably due to the endless earthquakes plaguing the region. Two in particular, striking in the mid 3rd-century C.E. and in 365 C.E, may have doomed the house: the treasure of silver and bronze coins were found within the destruction layers inside the house.

The city of Ptolemais, however, survived. At least for a while. It would remain the capital of Cyrenaica until the year 428, when it was destroyed by the Vandals, who invaded North Africa too from their Germanic home base. Ptolemais would be rebuilt under Justinian I, the byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. But after the Arab forces razed it again in the 7th century, that would be its end.

Originally posted here:
Archaeologists Uncover 1700-year Old Roman Villa With Stunning Mosaics in Libya - Haaretz

ALGIERS

Libya's neighbors Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia agreed on Tuesday to push for political dialogue to end the crisis in the North African country and rejected foreign interference or any military solution.

The "Algiers declaration" came after Egyptian jets last month carried out repeated airstrikes targeting camps for Islamist militants inside Libya who Cairo says were responsible for an attack on Egyptian Christians.

The joint statement appeared to be an effort to smooth over differences among the North African neighbors over how to bring stability to Libya, where rival armed and political factions have been fighting since the fall of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

A U.N.-backed government installed in Tripoli is trying to expand its influence and work with Western powers on security and immigration. But it has been rejected by some armed factions inside Tripoli and powerful rivals to the east backed by military commander Khalifa Hafter.

Algeria has been pushing for an inclusive dialogue in Libya, while Egypt has more openly voiced support for Haftar, who has launched campaigns against Islamist militants and has so far rejected a U.N.-backed government in Tripoli.

The ministers focussed on the "preservation of territorial integrity, sovereignty and unity of Libya", they said at the end of their closed-door meeting.

"The political solution is the only way to resolve the crisis through inclusive dialogue, the rejection of interference and military options," said the statement on Algeria's state news agency APS.

Egypt sees any militant activity in eastern Libya, which is near its border, as a threat to its own national security. One of the reasons Egypt's leadership has supported Haftar since 2014 is to try to ensure all Islamists are driven from eastern Libya.

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Libya's Neighbors Push Political Deal Over Military Solution - Voice of America