A leading international rights group on Wednesday released a report documenting atrocities by Libya’s Islamic State affiliate — including instances of “crucifixions” and shooting a man to death for “cursing God” — in the coastal city of Sirte, a stronghold of the militants.
(FOX)- Human Rights Watch recounts “scenes of horror” that followed the city’s seizure by ISIS militants in February 2015, with beheadings of dozens of residents accused of being spies or sorcerers.
Men were flogged for acts such as smoking or listening to music, and fathers were ordered to “marry off their daughters” to the group’s fighters as ISIS spread a wave of terror among the townspeople.
The 41-page HRW report entitled “‘We Feel We Are Cursed’: Life under ISIS in Sirte, Libya,” is based on interviews with 45 Sirte residents conducted by the New York-based group in March. The residents were among the two thirds of the city’s 80,000-strong population that fled after Islamic State overran Sirte.
The militant branch, more known for its spread in Iraq and Syria, gained a foothold in Libya amid the chaos that engulfed the country since the ouster and killing of the longtime autocratic leader Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
ISIS managed to exploit the turmoil as political rivalries left Libya torn between rival governments, parliaments, and myriad of militias backing either side. Its spread triggered fears in Europe at the prospects of the continent being separated from a permanent ISIS base in Libya only by a relatively small stretch of the Mediterranean Sea.
“While the world’s attention is focused on atrocities in Syria and Iraq, ISIS is also getting away with murder in Libya,” said Letta Tayler, a senior terrorism and counterterrorism researcher at HRW, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State group.