The organization of the Islamic State managed to surprise everyone to extend and march towards the Libyan territory announcing the presence of its fighters in the Libyan city of (Sirte) and control it which marked the starting point of moving forward to some other Libyan cities and enhance its capabilities and to encourage its supporters and fighters to go and fight in Libya.
The announcement of Sabratha City as a Libyan Islamic emirate by the organization of the Islamic state to confirm the strength , size and breadth of the organization after the military confrontations and conflicts between its fighters and a number of armed factions west of the city of Tripoli, where the organization managed of the review of military columns within a city of (Sabratha) raising the banners of the Islamic state in a clear challenge to the international community and the leadership of the military alliance noting that the organization wanted to prove to all of those who are interested and pursued of it and its supporters that the ISIS has the potential to reach the city the organization wants and achieve its target in any process working on drawing schemes of its implementations accurately and of high results – on the field , military and logistical level.
The expansion and crawl process toward the land and cities of Libya came after a series of failures of Islamic state fighters in Iraq, Syria and withdrawal from the areas (Seneia , Tikrit and Baiji) in the province of Salahuddin and Sinjar district of the province of Nineveh in Iraq and the withdrawal of (Kwers airport) in Syria and the siege imposed on the organization fighters on the outskirts of the Syrian Tadmur city(Palmyra) , to confirm that the organization has the ability to achieve its objectives in other parts of the world.
It is one of the goals of the organization and that it was previously referred to by us in many of our articles about the way , movement and orientations of the organization and its quest for expansion towards the north of Africa, and particularly the Arab countries, which lies next to the southern Europe to form an extension of its objectives and seeking to carry out operations of confrontation inside the depth of EU.
we can define goals and objectives of the state organization sought to it by its extension in the Libyan territory according to the following perspective:
1. The Libyan cities overlooking the Mediterranean coast, specifically the city (Sirte) is the main gateway for the starting point of the organization towards Europe and the world, which threatens international peace and security considering European countries as the starting point to enhance its strength and draw its plans and the implementation of its goals.
2. Libyan sites, dominated by the organization and seeks to promote its sites in other cities characterized by its importance and its strategic location with all its precious metals and large oil reserves , are an important resources and good economic outlet which help the organization to sustain the momentum of the fight and provide support and assistance to his fighters to continue in the confrontation and advance .
3. The pursuit of the organization to choose strategic objectives and important locations and cities of economic importance forms a central part in its orientations noting that the city (Sirte) containing 80% of total oil reserves in Libya at about 45 billion of barrels, representing 90% of total oil production in Libya as and where (16) giant fields and (23) large fields distributed in the basin of (Sirte) shaped in an oil crescent contains between 100 million barrels as a minimum and of 500 million barrels as a maximum in these fields.
4 Fighting taking place between its fighters and armed groups from the Libyan army fighters led by Major General Khalifa Haftar in and around the city (Ajdabiya) aimed by organization to take control of this city due to its strategic importance and have a limited protection to the Mediterranean Sea and is an important extension towards the interior oases in the depth of the Libyan territories and represents the crescent adjacent to the city of Benghazi where Zoitbnh, an important oil port, and oil refinery plants and get the oil derivatives .
5. Entry of the organization to the City (Sabratha) and declared it an Islamic subsidiary state is of great importance in strengthening its control and governance over Libyan oil Crescent region inside Libyan territory, in addition to the ancient history of the city and possession of a large and valuable archaeological treasures dating back to the Roman era and can benefit from it in the strengthening its financial resources and sell the precious ones, as happened in the great relics belonging to the Assyrian and Babylonian eras of Nineveh province in Iraq or the destruction of some of them, as happened in the city of (Syrian Palmyra) and Iraqi areas ( alHader and Nimrod ).
6. The control of ISIS on these cities form a pivotal base in North Africa and help to contribute to the oil smuggling illegally across the Mediterranean sea to Europe to promote and strengthen its financial resources.
7. After persistent and extreme air strikes to sites organized by the leadership of the international coalition on the Syrian cities of Raqqa and Deir Al-Zour and failures that accompanied the presence in Iraq, it has become necessary for a lot of its fighters to move and fight in Libya away from operations and the continued aerial bombardment.
These objectives and what had been achieved of it coincided with Intellectual and ideological vision of the organization and its leaders and what had been achieved in many regions and countries in North Africa of events and developments contributed to strengthening the presence of the organization in this important region of the world and that we can observe in the following:
1. The organization has sought to expand the base of its spread and extension towards the African continent, especially after the announcement of the leader (Boko Haram movement) in the north of Nigeria (Abu Bakr Chicão) to pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a religious duty that would provoke the wrath of the enemies of God.
2. This rapprochement among factions of the Islamic state and the intensification of cooperation among them constitute a danger to the security situation and political stability in the north of the continent of Africa, where the organization seeks to attract Islamic militants to fight in the continent, particularly in the cities and regions in which there is a presence of the organization or dormant sleeper cells linked to it and implement what is required from them .
3. The organization of the Islamic state is to declare (the state of the Islamic state in West Africa) and the preparation of the tactical and combat approach to sustain the continuation of this state and the implementation of several operations on important elected targets in the cities where there are elements of the regulation and targeting Western interests in it, within the organization’s strategy in the form of a comprehensive jihad.
4 That the presence of state regulation in the Libyan coastal cities and their quest to control it threatens international and regional security, including the European interests in the Middle East region and constitutes a direct threat to national security for these countries and for the neighboring countries overlooking the Mediterranean sea .
5. Harnessing the media, including the magazine (glutinous) Dabiq issued by the media center of the organization to request from Islamist fighters and their associates of traveling to join the fighting in the Libyan territories so as to promote the goals and directions of the organization in North Africa regions.
6. The regulation enabled of the establishment of 12 training camps in the city (Sirte) and started to prepare fighters and volunteers to fight in the rest of the Libyan cities and achieve the control over it noting that the number of its fighters reached of (6000) fighters distributed as follows:
a . 850 Libyan fighter .
b. 1455 Sudanese fighter .
c . 1395 of African and European nationalities .
d. 2300 fighters from North African countries and in charge of them (Abu Amir Jazrawi) , governor of Sirte , a Saudi nationality.
The escalation of events and the evolution of attitudes and orientations of the Islamic state in the targeting fundamentals of the national security of the countries of North Africa and European countries overlooking next to the Mediterranean sea constitute an effective factor and a motivation for an international military intervention in the Libyan territory, Will we see European consensus and a clear support of US to strengthen cooperation and interdependence in the face of the goals of state regulation and seeking to strengthen the unity of the Libyan people and the preservation of its territory, this is what we will see in the coming days.
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies