Islamic State group captures historic town in Libya

PanARMENIAN.Net - Islamic State fighters have seized control of the Libyan town of Sabratha, site of one of the world’s best-preserved ancient Roman theatres, Telegraph reports.

The fighters moved in a long column of Toyota pick-up trucks into the center of town on Thursday, December 10 in what was initially thought to be a retaliatory raid after two of their men were arrested in a house nearby.

However, they then set up checkpoints around the town, with little opposition from the local militias that were supposed to be in control of the area.

The town is 50 miles from the Libyan capital Tripoli, which is now facing a threat from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant from both west and east.

On the eastern side, the group has moved on from its base in Sirte, the home town of the former dictator Col Muammar Gaddafi, and is attacking Khoms, 70 miles away. Khoms is the site of Leptis Magna, once the capital of the Roman province of Africa and now one of the finest set of historical remains in the world.

Destruction of the ruins, which rival or even surpass those of Palmyra in Syria, would be regarded as one of the great cultural disasters of modern times. The jihadists have already blown up the Temple of Baal and other parts of Palmyra.

The mayor of Sabratha, an Islamist allied to Libya Dawn, is said to have released the man who was arrested after meeting his Isil-linked relative, saying that the local Isil members were “peaceful” and not dominated by foreign fighters.

The recognized government has accused Libya Dawn of allowing extremism to flourish as the country has fallen apart.