Libya’s coastal city of Sirte under full ISIL control: Report

The ISIL Takfiri group has claimed to have seized "full control" of Libya's coastal city of Sirte and a steam power plant near the city from the Libya Dawn militia, a report says.

On Tuesday, the US-based SITE Intelligence Group quoted a report, in which a division of the terrorist group calling itself the Tripoli Province said that the terrorists had seized the last locations of Libya Dawn militants in the northern city "linking the east and west of Libya.

SITE further noted that ISIL had published photos of its militants “engaged in clashes, sitting atop heavy guns, exploring the power plant and town, as well as bodies of dead" Libya Dawn militants.

According to the report, following the clashes that erupted between the two militant groups earlier in the day, Libya Dawn militants lost the a-Jallit military camp and al-Qardhabiyah base as well as all entrances to the city.

The ISIL Takfiri group, which emerged in Libya by releasing a video in February that showed the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians, seized the civilian airport in Sirte last month.

The Takfiri group had reportedly managed to recruit hundreds of militants in Libya over the past months, with the number of Takfiri terrorists exceeding 2,000 in the country.

Libya plunged into chaos following the 2011 uprising against the dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi, whose ouster gave rise to a patchwork of heavily-armed militia groups and deep political divisions.

Libya has two rival governments battling for control of the country, with one faction, the General National Congress (GNC), controlling Tripoli, and the other, the country’s internationally-recognized government, governing the cities of Tobruk and Bayda.

Libya’s government and elected parliament relocated to Tobruk after an armed group based in the northwestern city of Misrata seized Tripoli and most government institutions in August 2014.

Several rounds of peace talks brokered by the UN in recent months have failed to deliver any practical results that could lead to the formation of a unity government.

Tobruk government 'unhappy' with peace talks

Meanwhile, Libya's internationally recognized parliament expressed dissatisfaction with the proposed draft agreement discussed in the latest round of UN-brokered peace talks in the Moroccan city of Skhirat.

“The parliament is very unhappy over the draft accord," especially over the "prerogatives" that have been proposed to the rival GNC, said Fradj Abou Hachem, spokesman for the parliament based in the northeastern city of Tobruk.

The 69-article peace draft proposes the formation of a transitional government of national unity for a period of one year, making parliament of the internationally-recognized government the legislative authority in the interim period, but it stipulates that a high council of state, mainly drawn from the GNC, be able to “express binding opinion with a qualified majority on draft laws.”

Under the proposed plan the sides should integrate their militias into a reformed military controlled directly by the government, and the former rebel fighters have been offered a chance to join up or be reintegrated into civilian life.

The warring sides are heading for Berlin, Germany, to further their talks with world powers.

“We have called the... team home for consultations,” Abou Hachem said, adding that anyone from his delegation who heads to Berlin would be “doing so on a personal basis only.”

RS/MHB/AS

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