Sirte airport under IS control, says Libyan official

A Libyan official said that the Islamic State group has seized control of the airport in the city of Sirte, after forces belonging to the Tripoli-based Libyan government withdrew.

Mohamed al-Shami, of the General National Congress, said its forces pulled out late Thursday from the airport which had “fallen into the hands of the IS organisation”.

The airport, which is also a military base called Gardabiya, is 20 kilometres south of Sirte, the hometown of the late Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi. Ghaddafi was ousted and killed in Libya’s 2011 uprising.

Shami said that the forces pulled out of Gardabiya to redeploy “as part of an operation to secure” areas to the east and west of Sirte.

“After they left, Islamic State group fighters entered the base which had been completely emptied of equipment, except for one military plane which is out of use,” he added.

In a message posted on Twitter, IS said that it took full control of the airport after clashes with forces loyal to the Tripoli government.

Officials in Tripoli said that IS had allied with supporters of the ousted Ghaddafi government to deploy across Sirte, a region which has oil fields.

The city, some 450 kilometres east of Tripoli, has turned into a bastion of armed militant groups. Since IS emerged as a presence in Libya in February, Sirte became the scene for sporadic fighting between IS and the Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) militia alliance, the latter tasked by the Tripoli government to secure the city.

Shami said that pro-Tripoli forces would launch a counteroffensive to retake the airport once reinforcements arrived.

Following the toppling of Ghaddafi, Libya plunged into chaos, where the country’s stark political divisions have yielded two rival seats of government, each with its own institutions and military capacities.

Vying for legislative authority are the Tobruk-based House of Representatives and the General National Congress, which convenes in the capital Tripoli.