Suspected Islamic State (IS) militants attacked early Monday Al-Fuqaha town in central Libya, killing four people, kidnapping others and torching a police station.
Local sources said the area in Jufra District has been controlled by the militants in the aftermath, adding that around 20 young men, including policemen, were kidnapped.
The attack on al-Fuqaha, south of the former IS bastion of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast, began at 1 a.m.
They added that the militants led the young men to a rural road, and some heard sounds of gunfire at nearby farms. It has not been made clear whether these men were killed or the militants were celebrating their control over the area.
The attack comes after a statement issued by the Presidency Council called for an end to the insecurity at the area and to take some measures to improve the situation.
“Currently, four people from the al-Fuqaha have died as a result of the attack. Among them is the son of the chairman of the local council in Jufra district,” the Municipal Council of Jufra District wrote on Facebook.
The council said the situation in the area is “disastrous” as fierce clashes erupted against IS, calling upon all parties for rapid intervention to “save the area.”
Since Muammar Gaddafi’s fall in 2011, some areas of the war-torn country have been controlled by IS militants, particularly Sirte, the very hometown of Gaddafi.
Religious education became mandatory in the city, and they established their own police force, introducing gender segregation at schools, banning alcohol, and imposing Draconian punishments such as cutting off limbs and beheading people.
In the late 2016, IS militants were largely forced out from Sirte by the Government of National Accord forces (GNA) in the cooperation with the U.S.
The GNA requested air-strike support from the U.S., which officially joined the battle on Aug. 1, 2016. These attacks have continued until the end of 2016, and by Dec. 6, 2016, IS was finally defeated at Sirte.
IS suffered heavy losses in the attacks as several of its senior figures were killed, including Waleed al-Farjani, a senior judge of the Islamic court in Sirte, the Egyptian Abu Omar al-Muhajir and Fayez Al-Bidi, an imam from Benghazi, was reportedly killed in an airstrike around Dec. 4, 2016.
