Libya Could Replace Syria and Iraq as Main Islamic State Hub

If attacks on Islamic State continue to weaken the group in Syria and Iraq, it could relocate its headquarters to Libya’s northern coastal town of Sirte, its Libyan headquarters since early spring 2015, an Israeli expert on Africa said on Sunday.

Prof. Yehudit Ronen, a leading expert on Libya and the African Sahel region at Bar- Ilan University, said the Syrian regime and Russia’s military victory in retaking the ancient city of Palmyra from Islamic State was a watershed defeat for the group.

“As Islamic State losses continue, the attractiveness of Libya as a rear and alternative base could gather momentum and become reality,” said Ronen, a political scientist and author of the acclaimed Qaddafi’s Libya in World Politics.

“Libya’s Mediterranean coast is a highly important strategic location for Islamic State, which it penetrated in 2014,” noted Ronen. “The organization is well aware that the coastal strip’s oil and gas-rich infrastructure and ports are turning Libya into an effective jump-off point to expand jihadist terror to the European continent.”

The unrest in Libya’s can be seen in the broader context of the jihadist plagued Maghreb and Sahel regions where terrorism is transversing borders, affecting governments from Algeria to Tunisia to Egypt, she continued.

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