Centre

Franais de Recherche sur le Renseignement

FOREIGN ANALYSIS N24

ISLAMIC STATE NEAR EUROPEAN BORDERS

Dr Marcin Styszynski

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Arabic and Islamic Studies

Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (Poland)

Photos showing control of main Sirte roads and checkpoints by fighters affiliated to the Islamic State.

The tragic terrorist attack on Bardo National Museum in Tunis, on 18 march
2015, finally defined the Islamic State (IS) influences in North Africa and strengthened
the position of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in the region. The organization claimed
responsibility for the attack in Tunis and threatened to commit further acts.
In May 2015, Italian police arrested Moroccan citizen Touil Abdelmajid who
reached Italy on a migrant boat. He brought weapons for the Bardo Museum attackers
from Libya to Tunisia before the date of the attack1.
The example demonstrates that IS supporters established their core bases in
Libya. The country is affected by ongoing political unrest and domination of tribal
militias and smuggling gangs or gunrunners, as well as crisis between secular forces in
Tobruk and Islamist coalition from Tripoli called the Libyan Dawn.
1 http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/africa/2015/05/21/Tunisia-says-Moroccan-held-in-Italy-

supplied-weapons-for-museum-attackers.html

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However, the Islamic State domination in North Africa is also a result of
additional reasons and external Islamist influences that impact operational, financial
and military capacities as well as transregional activities of local insurgents.
It should be pointed out that jihadists in North Africa suffered and weakened
after successful antiterrorist actions headed by neighboring countries like Algeria and
France. It concerns French military intervention in Mali in 2013 that neutralized rebel
camps in northern Mali and successful antiterrorist operations in Chaambi mountains,
between Algerian and Tunisian borders, infiltrated by main jihadist groups like Uqba
Ibn Nafi, Mourabitoun or Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Besides, in October
2013, American forces captured Abu Anas al-Libi, an Al-Qaeda operative in Libya and
one of the most wanted terrorists who was involved in the 1998 United States embassy
bombings in Dar es-Salaam and Nairobi. Al-Libi died on 2 January 2015 at an hospital in
United States custody as a result of liver cancer1. Furthermore, the main jihadist group
Ansar al-Sharia in Libya has confirmed recently that its leader Mohammad al-Zahawi
has died because of a battle with Libyan government troops in the eastern city of
Benghazi, in October 20142.
The pessimistic situation forced many jihadists to search new support,
approaches and objectives. Al-Baghdadi responded to insurgents hopes and offered
new concept of jihad and establishment of the historic caliphate as well as military,
logistic and financial assistance.
Moreover, the Islamic State took advantages of the decreasing role of Al-Qaeda
and its leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who could not achieve the same position like Osama
bin Laden. The spokesman of the Islamic State, Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, issued the
manifesto Ma kana hada manhajuna wa lan yakuna (It was not our way and it wont
be), which criticizes Al-Qaida Central and defines final separation between old jihadists
and young generation of Islamists.
Furthermore, external influences in North Africa are evident in the context of
foreign militants like Abu Nabil al-Anbari. He is an Iraqi national that served as governor
of Salahudeen province in Iraq. Al-Anbari was sent from Iraq to the new frontline
because of his brutality and ruthlessness in implementation of Al-Baghdadis orders.
The Libyan caliphate is also supported by Abu Habeeb al-Jazrawi, a Saudi citizen who
pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, accepting him as the Caliph and new leader
over Libya. Besides, Abu Baraa al-Azdi is a Yemeni citizen who is the religious leader in
Dernah city and local governor after the declaration of the loyalty to the Islamic State3.
Insurgents affiliated with the Islamic State are operating in their bases in
mountainous regions in the south of Dernah city as well as Sirte or Sidi Frej district in
Benghazi. In November 2014 jihadists established an Islamic Council in Dernah. They
marched through the streets of the city and declared that they would act as the security
forces and guards of Islamic laws. Similar demonstrations took place in other cities
dominated by Islamist militias4.

1 http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2015/01/islamic_state_provin.php?utm_source=feedburner&

utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LongWarJournalSiteWide+%28The+Long+War+Journal+
%28Site-Wide%29%29
2 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30971915
3 http://www.trackingterrorism.org/chatter/trac-insight-isis-benghazi
4 http://www.jadaliyya.com

Apart from the last Bardo Museum attacks in Tunis, insurgents affiliated to the IS
have already increased their terrorist activities in Libya. For instance, militants from
Tripoli claimed responsibility for the last attack against Corinthia Hotel in Libya that
killed at least 11 people, including three guards and five foreigners. In November 2014,
a car bomb exploded in front of embassies of the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. On
17th January 2015, jihadists carried out an attack against Algerian Embassy in Tripoli1.
All assaults caused several casualties and various damages in the Libyan capital. The
Islamic State also released a video showing brutal beheading of Egyptian Christians on a
Libyan beach2.
Jihadist groups have also concentrated recently in Sabratah city near Tunisian
borders in order to carry out some actions in neighboring countries considered as main
regions of Western influences, secularism or infidelity and sins.


Dr Marcin Styszynski
June 2015

1 http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/27/middleeast/libya-corinthia-hotel-attack/ (02.05.2015).
2 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-31481797 (02.05.2015).