ISIS in action

Two car bomb attacks were carried out in the capital this week, one against the Egyptian embassy and the other against the embassy of the United Arab Emirates.

The Islamic State (IS) of Abu Bakr Baghdadi in Iraq and Syria is still winning over supporters in Derna. A second forum was held in the town this week at which local militants belonging to the Shura Council of the Youth of Islam in Derna pledged their allegiance to Baghdadi and his Islamic State.

The rebranding of Haftar’s forces as the National Army plus PR attempts to coordinate with the local population have proved helpful, but also played into jihadi recruitment stratagems of using hatred of Haftar as their primary recruitment platform.

General Khalifa Hafter launched a major offensive against Islamist militants in Benghazi this week making serious gains that seem to have finally shifted the balance of power between his forces and those of the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council more firmly in his favour.

ISIS did not exist in Libya at this point and its precursor groups were largely on the offensive in Benghazi this week.

Although ISIS was not directly involved in Libya, its jihadi precursors were attempting evermore audacious attacks and changing the culture of the civil war. The use of suicide bombings has raised the spectre of further such attacks being carried out not only in Benghazi but elsewhere in Libya.

ISIS did not exist in Libya yet, and this was a relatively peaceful week, nonetheless, violence continued unabated in Benghazi with more assassinations and targeted attacks presumed to be carried out by Islamist militants.

Although, ISIS did not yet exist in Libya, Jihadis were gaining the upper hand in opposing Haftar in Eastern Libya. Benghazi has been rocked by another string of assassinations.

Although ISIS had not yet manifested itself in Libya, the two bloc nature of the Libyan civil war became firmer with their alliance patterns coming into focus.