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On this day six years ago, a popular uprising erupted in Libya against the 42-year-old regime of Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi. Nato famously stepped in, ostensibly to protect civilians, with the backing of France and the US. Eight months later, Gaddafi was dead and the Libyan regime was history.

So too, it appears, was the entire country.

Libya has descended into uncontrollable chaos. Power cuts are routine, topped with water shortages, hyperinflation, a liquidity crisis, and rule by militia. The capital itself is very unsafe, especially at night, manned by men with guns who are far more influential than the UN-backed National Accord Government that is struggling to assert full control of the country since assuming power last March.

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Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar controls the entire east of Libya, where a quarter of the population lives, and enjoys the backing of Egypt and Russia.

Then Secretary of State Clinton stands alongside Libyan fighters loyal to the National Transitional Council after a flying visit to Tripoli in 2011. Photo: AFP

Worse still, Libya is becoming a magnet for African jihadis, lured into its wilderness by the collapse of central authority and the rise of the Islamic State. The terror group swiftly ventured into Libya to set up Salafi rule and to use the war-torn country to reach not only the shores of Europe but to Libyas neighbors: Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Chad, Niger and Sudan.

ISIS already enjoys an affiliate in sub-Saharan Africa, with the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram pledging allegiance to the ISIS caliphate in March 2015. ISIS smuggles Nato arms from the Libyan battlefield to another ISIS-affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which has also pledged loyalty to the self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

In Libya itself, ISIS goes by the name Majlis Shura Shabab al-Islam (MSSI) or the Shura Council of Muslim Youth. Established in western Libya back April 2014, it took the oath to al-Baghdadi in June, and one year later boasted of 800 fighters. Of that number 300 are Libyan militants who fought with ISIS, first in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zour and then in Mosul, and returned home to pay service to the jihadi project in their own country.

Videos appeared online of machine-gun toting Libyan jihadis dressed in beige fatigues taking mannequins from shop windows and shutting hairdressers

In November 2014, MSSI took over the Libyan city of Darna, 240 kilometers east of Benghazi, officially annexing it to ISISs Islamic State and renaming it the Vilayet of Darna Vilayet being an old term describing one of the Ottoman Caliphates major administrative regions.

Videos appeared online of machine-gun toting Libyan jihadis dressed in beige fatigues taking mannequins from shop windows and shutting hairdressers, forcing women to wear the niqab from head to toe. MSSI now controls schools, mosque pulpits and the citys local radio. A police force was created and charged with monitoring public vice.

Al-Baghdadi refused to send any weapons or money to his Libyan proxies, advising them to make money from trafficking, kidnapping and other illegal means, just as they did in Syria. Instead he sent them two of his top aides to advise on how to run the state the Iraqi, Abu Nabil al-Anbari, and Abu Baraa al-Azdi, a Saudi. Both were long-time ISIS members who had spent time with the caliph at a US jail in Camp Bucca in Iraq, near the Kuwaiti border.

Many of the jihadis operating in Libya today are Yemeni and Tunisian veterans of the wars in Iraq and Syria. Foreign fighters in Libya now number around 400 although ISIS claims that it is much higher. Some are former Gaddafi supporters who went underground after their leaders death in October 2011, similar to the way ex-officers in Saddams army sided with the jihadis after their presidents fall in 2003.

As it does in Syria and Iraq, ISIS feeds off the chaos and rules by striking fear into the hearts of locals. In August 2014, they executed an Egyptian citizen at a Libyan football stadium beneath the black flag of ISIS. In January 2015, they attacked the luxury Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli, killing four foreigners including an American contractor and four Libyans. The following month, they killed nine Libyan guards in an attack on an oil field, and a month later laid claim to a car bomb that went off near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tripoli. They also seized nine foreigners at the al-Ghani Oilfield, and by May 2015 had taken control of Sirte International Airport.

The gunmen who attacked the Corinthia Hotel blew themselves up after killing 9 people, including four foreigners. Photo: AFP

The epitome of ISIS atrocities in Libya was the abduction and execution of 21 Egyptian Copts, all working as laborers in Sirte, the birthplace of Gaddafi on the south coast of the Gulf of Sidra halfway between Tripoli and Benghazi. They were beheaded, kneeling in their orange jumpsuits along the Sirte shoreline. The backdrop was no accident ISIS wanted the world to see that this wasnt the deserts of Iraq and Syria but the shores of the Mediterranean facing Europe; ISIS was inching closer to new territory. The video of the mass execution was posted on the groups media channels. In it, one terrorist pointed to the ocean to nearby Italy threatening the now famous: We will conquer Rome!

Although supportive of the Libyan intervention back in 2011, Donald Trump now says he considers it one of the worst foreign policy failures of Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. General Haftar has welcomed Trumps election, hoping to do business with the new US president. For his part, Trump has promised to strike at ISIS across the world and might find a natural ally in the 75-year-old Libyan strongman.

The Libyan Army retook Sirte from ISIS last December, and hopes to repeat the task elsewhere, with aid from the United States. Until that happens, the country will remain a failed state on every single level of governance, giving Libyans little reason to celebrate the sixth anniversary of what was supposed to be a glorious revolution against Muammar al-Gaddafi.

Original post:
ISIS thriving in Libya 6 years after revolt against Gaddafi - Asia Times

Libyas crude production exceeded 700,000 barrels a day and is due to keep rising as working conditions in the conflict-ridden country improve for international companies like Eni SpA and Total SA, an official from the state oil company said.

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Eni and Total are working in Libya without difficulty and Schlumberger Ltd. resumed operations in the country about three months ago, he said. Eni is due to start production from an offshore area in five years, he said.

Eni and Total are working there with no problems, so the situation is improving every day in Libya and Id like to take this opportunity as an introduction for those who have interest to work in Libya, Alaokali said. More than 45 percent of the land is still virgin, hasnt been explored, so we still have large areas that havent been discovered, so the opportunity is there.

Libya, with Africas largest crude reserves, is trying to revive its oil production and exports in spite of continuing political uncertainty. Additional production may create a challenge for OPEC and other major suppliers that agreed to pump less crude for six month starting Jan. 1 in an effort to end a global glut.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries exempted Libya from cutting output as the nation works to restore its oil industry. The country pumped 1.6 million barrels a day before a 2011 revolt set off years of fighting between rival governments and militias.

Libyas biggest oil field, Sharara, operated by Repsol SA, re-opened in December. The Eni-run El-Feel deposit was also due to re-open then but guards demanding benefits prevented that, NOC said last month. The two fields in western Libya have a combined capacity of 450,000 barrels a day.

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Libya Crude Output Rises as Work Conditions for Big Oil Improve ... - Bloomberg

Tripoli - Libyan unity government chief Fayez al-Sarraj said on Thursday a "precious opportunity" had been missed when his rival, military strongman Khalifa Haftar, refused to meet him for Egypt-backed talks this week.

Sarraj said Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, whose forces control much of eastern Libya, had refused to meet him on Tuesday in Cairo "without justification or reason".

The parties had missed "another precious opportunity that we hoped would be the beginning of a solution to the state of division and suffering" in Libya, he said in a statement.

"Intransigent political stances and oversized egos" were preventing a resolution to the conflict, he said.

Libya has been submerged in chaos since the fall of longtime dictator Moammar Gaddafi in 2011.

A UN-backed deal signed in Morocco in late 2015 gave birth to Sarraj's fragile unity government based in Tripoli, but gave Haftar no role in Libya's future.

The Government of National Accord has since struggled to impose its authority across the country, particularly in the east where a rival administration holds sway, backed by Haftar's forces.

The controversial head of the self-styled Libyan National Army has established himself as a key player, especially after seizing the country's key oil terminals in September.

Last week, UN envoy Martin Kobler said that negotiations on "possible amendments" to the 2015 accord had been underway for two months.

The Egyptian army hosted Sarraj and Haftar in Cairo this week for talks. They were set to meet but Sarraj said they did not meet face to face.

The army announced on Wednesday that the two sides had agreed to form "a joint committee" to come up with amendments to the deal that set up the unity government.

But Sarraj said the talks had "failed".

Haftar's rivals accuse him of wanting to establish a military dictatorship in Libya.

The foreign ministry in Tunis said on Wednesday that the chief diplomats of Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt would meet on March 1 in the Tunisian capital to discuss the Libyan crisis.

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Libya PM regret 'missed opportunity' to meet rival - News24

Western and southern military delegations visited Algeria and met with Abdelkader Messahel, the Algerian Maghreb Affairs Minister to discuss resolving the Libyan political crisis. The foreign ministry in Algeria said the meeting is part of Algerias efforts to bring together the Libyan conflicting parties together into a united government.

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The Minister of the Local Governing at the UN-proposed government discussed with his Tunisian counterpart the obstacles faced by the travelers crossing Ras Ajdair border between Libya and Tunisia, reported an official accompanying the minister on the visit.

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Libyan Businesspersons Council protested the standard customs tariffs decision that was issued by the Presidential Council regarding tapping 100% tariffs on the imported goods, saying the procedure would raise the cost of the goods and will affect the citizens. It demanded the PC to reconsider the decision.

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After 15-hour flight from Egypt to Ethiopia then to Kenyas capital, Nairobi, Al-Hilal team arrived to play Kenyas Ulinzi Stars for the second leg match of the 64-round of the CAF Confederation Cup. Al-Hilal won the first leg match 1-0.

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A source from the High Council of State said what took place in Cair meetings was just proposals and ideas aiming at ending the political stalemate in Libya, calling on the UN and the Security Council to stop the support of some regional countries for the Speaker of the HoR, Aqilah Saleh and Khalifa Haftar, who are impeding the political agreement.

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Mustafa Al-Sherksi, the leader in the Defend Benghazi Brigades, said the body of the pilot Ibrahim Al-Dersi, who was killed by the downing of the helicopter last Friday, is still with them and they wont hand it over to Haftars forces unless they allow a safe corridor for the families that are still trapped in Ganouda.

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The member of the NOC, Jadallah Al-Okli, said Libyas oil output is expected to increase from 700.000 bpd to 1.2 million bpd by August 2017, adding that Al-Feel oilfields resumption of production in southwestern Libya in a month to come can add 75.000 bpd to the current rates.

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GECOLs media office said the load shedding policy has ended and the general power network has become stable after new power units joined the network and after the demand for power had shrunk with the warming of weather conditions. GECOL said Thursday new units were connected to the power network.

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Libya Post Office said it had deducted the costs of the mailing services by 30% to Turkey, Jordan, Sudan and Tunisia for a week to come starting next Saturday to celebrate the sixth anniversary of the Libyan 17 February revolution.

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A high-ranking official at the banking sector in Egypt confirmed that Egypt is negotiating with Libya the delay of payment for the Libyan deposit at the Egyptian Central Bank, which is worth 2 billion dollars without saying what party is negotiating the delay, the parallel or the Tripoli-based CBL.

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News Roundup - Thu, Feb 16, 2017 - The Libya Observer

BRUSSELS NATO said on Thursday it had received a new and detailed request from Libya's U.N.-backed government to train and develop its military, depleted by years of conflict and facing an Islamist militant threat as well as division among Libyan militias.

As the West and neighboring Egypt seek to stabilize Libya, NATO has offered support to the Tripoli-based government but a request from Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Seraj in May last year was seen as too broad.

Seraj's Government of National Accord (GNA) has been trying to formulate plans for unified Libyan security forces since arriving in Tripoli in March, but has made little progress in asserting its authority over rival factions. It is unclear if an Egyptian-brokered roadmap can help heal divisions between Seraj and Khalifa Haftar, a powerful eastern-based military commander.

Now NATO has a detailed call for help from Seraj, official said.

"We have said for some time that we are ready to help Libya, but any assistance has to be based on a request from the Libyan government. This is the request we received yesterday," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference.

"Training local forces is one of the best weapons in the fight against terrorism and building stability," he later told defense ministers meeting in Brussels.

The call for help follows European Union efforts to work with Seraj to curb an expected surge in people taking to boats to Europe from Libya as the weather improves in the Mediterranean.

NATO officials said the U.S.-led alliance will need time to respond to the government in Tripoli to decide on specific steps. NATO, which has experience training troops in Afghanistan, is being asked to develop a Libyan defense ministry with a chief of defense and intelligence-gathering capabilities.

"It is extremely important to have a ministry of defense, a (military) command and chief of staffs because Libya needs that framework to develop forces and stabilize the country," Stoltenberg said.

He said NATO could work either in or outside Libya. The EU is already training the Libyan coastguard in Italy and in international waters off North Africa.

Just 480 km (300 miles) from Europe's coast, Libya's slide into anarchy has made it an outpost for Islamist militants and a staging post for sub-Saharan African migrants aided by smugglers.

But the failure of the West's 2011 intervention still weighs on Western officials, even as the United States urges Europe to take a bigger role in securing the region.

Germany did not support the U.N. resolution to allow the air campaign that led to the ouster and death of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, while Russia has accused NATO of overstepping its brief to use "all necessary measures" to protect Libyan civilians.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)

KUALA LUMPUR Malaysian police made a third arrest on Thursday in their hunt for the people involved in the murder of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

JERUSALEM Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right political allies hailed on Thursday a shift in U.S. support for a Palestinian state and shrugged off a call by President Donald Trump to curb Israeli settlements on occupied land.

BONN, Germany Russia does not interfere in other countries' interior affairs, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday at the start of his first meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

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Libya sends new request for military training to NATO | Reuters - Reuters