Libyan militias declare victory over IS in Sirte

Analysts warn that extremists could regenerate in Libya

LONDON — Libyan fighters declared victory over the Islamic State group at its coastal stronghold of Sirte on Tuesday, ending the extremist group’s ambitions for a caliphate on the southern shores of the Mediterranean.

“The battle is finally over,” said Reda Eissa, a spokesman for the coalition of militias from nearby Misrata that led the assault. “Our fighters are ecstatic. We still have to comb through the city and make sure we got them all, but we are so, so happy.”

The Libyan fighters’ apparent success was another defeat for IS as its plans for a militant empire buckle on multiple fronts across the Middle East. In Sirte, the Misratan militias finally ousted the remaining IS fighters from a cluster of houses after a grueling sixmonth assault that pitted suicide bombers and snipers against Libyan forces backed by U.S. warplanes.

After moving into Sirte in 2014, IS seized a 150-mile stretch of coastline and instituted a brutal reign that included public killings and the imprisonment of migrants as sex slaves. The city became a transit hub for fighters traveling to Tunisia, as well as a supply stop and medical treatment center for Islamists fighting in eastern Libya.

The Misratan brigades began their drive toward IS positions in Sirte in May. U.S. warplanes joined the effort in August, carrying out at least 490 sorties over the city while house-to-house fighting raged in the streets below.

Even as the Misratan brigades celebrated Tuesday, analysts warned that IS could still regroup in other parts of Libya by exploiting the economic ruin and political vacuum that has dogged the country since the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

During the battle, both sides faced claims of abuses.

Many of the sex slaves held by IS in Sirte were African migrants captured as they crossed the Libyan Desert in hopes of reaching the coast so they could make the perilous sea journey to Europe. At least 100 women and children who escaped Sirte during the fighting, many from Eritrea, are being held at a prison in Misrata where they have given accounts of being abused and gang-raped.

The Libyan fighters from Misrata have faced accusations of torture and summary killings. A video recently emerged showing Misratan militiamen interrogating and threatening to kill an IS fighter named Mletan. Photographs that later circulated online showed the mutilated body of what appeared to be the same man being dragged along a street.

The fall of Sirte coincides with a concerted drive against IS in the Iraqi city of Mosul and a rapidly shifting fight in Syria.

The Misrata militias now in control of Sirte nominally fight under the banner of the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Fayez Serraj — one of three rival administrations vying for control of Libya. The United States also supports the unity government.

But the government is weak, having failed to extend its authority even over Tripoli since it started work in March. Last week in Tripoli, the most violent clashes in two years erupted between competing factions.