Libyan Islamic Fighting Group

Introduction:

The world is a place of diverse beings. The differences of each human civilization have been observed ever since the ancient times. As of today many terrorist groups are very evident from the West to the East. One of the most prominent terrorist groups is the Al Qaeda network but was debunked in the early days of 2011-2012. They are the proprietor of the 9-11 attack in the United States’ World Trade Center that has caused a worldwide uproar in the year 2001.

Meanwhile, a distant relative of this Al Qaeda Network is the LIFG (or the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group). They have different views with the Al-Qaeda but some allegations say that they are connected. The objectives of this paper are to undermine the history of the terrorist group LIFG as well as the victims, and other conceptions of their attacks. The essay is limited to the entity and will not discuss any conspiracy theories further.

History:

The group was founded in year 1995 by the Libya nationals that are fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan (in the 1980’s). Moreover, the group has a concrete objective of establishing an Islamic Government in Libya and is against the administration of Gaddafi and considers him as an anti-Muslim. This is based on a report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. In 1996, it was allegedly reported that LIFG was behind the assassination of Gaddafi; it was later admitted by the group later that month of February. It was later found out by David Shayler that MI6 funded the assassination. The group has been continuously attacking the Libyan security forces unitl the 1990s (NTC, 2011).

They are also behind on many attacks in UK in 2002 and were allegedly included in the attacks of 2012 in America. The name change of the militant group is constant over the years. Nevertheless, they are still the same group in Libya and has the same mission with the predecessor.

Acts done by the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group

The LIFG is an Islamic militant organization that contradicts Colonel Muammar Qaddafi’s administration and is seen in action ever since in the year 1995. The militant group is very visible (in numbers) in eastern Libya, drawing upon an in number Islamic base that bolstered the Sanussi government, which governed Libya somewhere around 1951 and 1969. The Islamic group was erased after Qaddafi’s powers ousted the government in 1969, as Qaddafi saw them as a potential test to his control.

Several senior individuals from the LIFG are accounted for to have battled in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union in the 1980s, including previous LIFG part and al-Qaeda field officer Abu Laith al-Libi and LIFG profound pioneer Sami al Saadi. It was also known that the LIFG has accepted to have been the proprietor of viciousness in eastern Libya – a district generally known as Cyrenaica – in the mid to late 1990s. Additionally, it guaranteed obligation regarding brutality against the police force in Benghazi amid July and September 1995, and were included in the wicked mobs at Abu Salim jail close to Benghazi in 1996 are 1,200 prisoners.

The U.S. Bureau of the Treasury assigned the LIFG as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on December 8, 2004, referring to the bunch’s contribution in a progression of suicide bombings in Casablanca in May 2003 and close linkages to al-Qaeda. The LIFG had bolster systems dynamic in the United Kingdom in the mid 2000s. In the months of February and May of 2006, British police captured nine individuals included in giving money related and logistical backing to the LIFG in Libya. It is not clear in open source reporting if such bolster systems stayed operational; while there are practically no reports of LIFG movement in the UK since the May 2006 captures, a double British-Libyan national who was captured in Libya in March 2011 asserted to have raised cash for the LIFG while living in the UK amid the last fourteen years. Al-Qaeda second-in-order Ayman al-Zawahiri discharged a sound tape declaring that the LIFG had joined al-Qaeda in the November of 2007. Abu Laith al-Libi is likewise heard on the tape, announcing his “partnership with the al-Qaeda network.

Several high positioning al-Qaeda individuals are connected with the LIFG, most remarkably Abu Yahya al-Libi, al-Qaeda’s publicity boss, and Abu Laith al-Libi, who was killed by an automaton strike in January 2008. The LIFG had all the earmarks of being generally outdated by the mid-2000s, until reports caught in Sinjar, Iraq demonstrated that more than 100 Libyans from LIFG fortresses in eastern Libya had joined al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) somewhere around 2006 and 2007. In year 2007, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, Colonel Qaddafi’s second most established child, approached detained LIFG pioneers and offered to discharge LIFG contenders in return for people in general disavowal of Islamic radicalism. Saif al-Islam was worried that the late LIFG collusion with al-Qaeda and the disclosure of far reaching Libyan association in AQI demonstrated that Libya was progressively debilitated by Islamic radicalism. Starting in 2007, more than 250 LIFG individuals were discharged from jail and other implicit rules negating al-Qaeda’s vicious standards was distributed by current administration (Witter, 2011).

LIFG participated with the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group in planning the May 2003 bombings in Morocco, Casablanca that killed over 40 people and injured more than a hundred wounded. The Group was also involved to the 2004 attacks in Spain’s capital Madrid.

Al-Faqih was tried and found guilty in the said case for his involvement in the series of suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco by the Morocco Rabat Criminal Court of Appeals in May 2003. It was known that the Morrocan Group initiated it and was tried in court.

In March 2011, individuals from the LIFG in Ajdabiya proclaimed to the press that the gathering backings the rebellion against Gaddafi’s standard, and had set themselves under the administration of the National Transitional Council. They likewise expressed that the gathering had transformed its name to Libyan Islamic Movement (al-Harakat al-Islamiya al-Libiya), had around 500–600 armed men from correctional facility lately, and denied any past or present connection with Al-Qaeda.

A pioneer of the LIFG, Abdelhakim Belhadj, turned into the leader of the Tripoli Military Council after the radicals assumed control Tripoli amid the 2011’s Tripoli War. Abdel-Hakim from the gathering, admit to the Italian daily paper Il Sole 24 Ore that his contenders had al-Qaeda links on March 2011. Al-Hasidi was caught in 2002 in Peshwar, Pakistan, later gave over to the US, and afterward held in Libya before being discharged in 2008. He concedes in the same meeting that he had prior battled against “the remote attack” of Afghanistan.

Victims of the LIFG Attacks:

Most victims of the group are civilians of the Libyan nation. They are considered as suspects to many bombings in the year 2003. Moreover, they have also killed many policemen in the year 1996 to issue a stronghold against the Qaddafi/Gadaffi administration. The killings are subject to debate because for the Islamic movement to kill (in the name of Almighty) is to glorify Allah.

But this part of the essay aims to describe the entity of the victims by the Islamic militants’ warfare. It is evident that the attacks are in lined with their mission as an independent organization that wants to establish an Islamic State in Libya. They have been killing innocent civilians to prove that they are doing these things to have a sovereign power. This is also as an act of rebellion to the Qadaffi government. Moreover, they are reiterating that the current administration is an Anti-Muslim. The killings are quite awful in the eyes of the reporter.

Several Bombings of the year 2003 which has killed over a hundred people has caused a huge uproar in the United Nations congregation. Moreover, the victims are mutilated, severely injured or died on the spot. It is not a pleasing sight according to John Mint (2004). They have also joined forces with Moroccan Islamic Group and have caused a casualty of 140 individuals

There are also allegations that the group has gang raped a woman in Libya (Veritas, 2011). The woman has been severely injured (mutilated) and could not be identified in the hospital where she was taken. The face of the woman is full of carvings allegedly by a knife.

The relatives of the victims most probably are devastated with what their loved ones experienced before their death.

Mitigation of threat:

The group has been very dynamic to its mission to establish an Islamic State that is not governed by Qadaffi. Moreover, there expansion to the international scene as having ties with high ranking officials of the Al Qaeda is very alarming.

The world is now suffering from many Islamic extremist groups that has caused a huge uproar to the international scene. Just last January 2015, a Japanese national has been beheaded by the ISIS. They are an Islamic group that is all behind the uproar in Syria, Iraq and Jordan. In the early days of February another individual has been brutally killed by the ISIS a Jordanian Pilot.

Whether, the LIFG is a part or associated with the ISIS the group is still bringing unfair brutal killings in Libya. It is not fair for innocent people to die in the midst of a bias conflict. However, if the group is fighting for their rights, they could have made a peaceful move rather than killing innocent people. It is quite a disgrace to their religion; for Islam is a religion of peace.

All in all, the attacks of the terrorist group are condemned by many including the proponent of this essay. No one has the right to kill anybody regardless of religion or race or whatsoever. If somebody is killing because of extreme advocacy, they are not only blind but they also lack empathy.

References:

Witter, David B., (2011). “Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.” A Fact Sheet: Institute for the Study of War. Retrieved from: [http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/FactSheet_LIFG.pdf]

Mint, John., (2004). “Victims of the Libyan 2003 Bombing.” Archived Daily Esquire News. Retrieved from:[http:www. esquirenews.com/files/2003libya.html]

Veritas, V., (2011). “Woman Gang Raped and Mutilated by Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.” Retrieved from: [http://www.bestgore.com/execution/woman-gang-raped-mutilated-libyan-islamic-fighting-group/]

“Foreign Terrorist Organizations-Multimedia Counterterrorism Calendar”. Nctc.gov. Retrieved2011-11-08. [http://www.nctc.gov/site/other/fto.html]