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The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has brutally quelled a rebellion in the Libyan city of Sirte by citizens who took up arms to try to push back the armed group, residents have said.
Witnesses said the group was now calling on residents to pledge allegiance over loudspeakers from its main mosque and desecrating bodies of their adversaries.
Sources in the city said on Monday that clashes broke out five days earlier between ISIL and armed residents in the city’s Number Three neighbourhood, before ISIL besieged it and began shelling it with heavy weaponry.
By Monday, the neighbourhood was under the full control of ISIL, the sources said. Cleric Khalid Awad said that ISIL had killed some of their prisoners and hung the bodies from bridges, roundabouts and highways across the city.
There were also reports that the group had beheaded 12 people and crucified them. Libya’s National News agency said the beheadings took place in the Number Three neighbourhood. Reuters quoted witnesses as saying that ISIL had also hung the bodies of four fighters over bridges for public display.
ISIL began to make advances in Sirte earlier this year, taking advantage of the chaos plaguing Libya since 2011. There are now two rival governments in the country, a UN-recognised government in Tobruk, and a legally-installed government in Tripoli.
These are also combined with an assortment of tribesmen and armed groups, all battling for control of cities and regions after leader Muammar Gaddafi was ousted and killed by rebel fighters four years ago. — AP
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