The Origins and Evolution of ISIS in Libya
Map 1. Map showing control of Libya and location of ISIS attacks as of May 2015
other prominent individuals in Libya. Ten people were killed in the attack, including five foreign nationals, among them an American citizen.84 The ISIS cells that conducted this attack have never been formally apprehended. They and other ISIS sympathizers most likely persist in the capital to this day. In December 2014 through January 2015, ISIS fighters kidnapped a number of Egyptian Coptic Christians, who were among the tens of thousands of Egyptian 84 Chris Stephen, “Ten Killed as Gunmen Storm Luxury Hotel in Libyan Capital,” Guardian, January 27, 2015, https://www. theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/27/libya-gunmen-kill-guardstake-hostages-luxuy-hotel-tripoli.
ATLANTIC COUNCIL
workers who still came to work in Libya after the 2011 uprisings despite the ongoing instability.85 Targeted for their religion, these men were used by ISIS in Libya’s second, and most spectacular, attack. On February 15, 2015, ISIS released a video depicting the beheading of twenty-one of these individuals on the shores of Sirte.86 The international reaction to this horrific event was immediate. Egypt launched airstrikes in Derna and 85 Eye on ISIS in Libya , ISIS in Action, December 28, 2014, http:// eyeonisisinlibya.com/isis-in-action/action-28-december-2014/; Eye on ISIS in Libya, ISIS in Action, January 19, 2015, http:// eyeonisisinlibya.com/isis-in-action/action-19-january-2015/. 86 Eye on ISIS in Libya, ISIS in Action, February 16, 2015, http:// eyeonisisinlibya.com/isis-in-action/action-16-february-2015/.
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