Libyan court sentences 17 ex-IS members to death

Libya’s top prosecutor in Tripoli said in a statement that a Libyan court had sentenced 17 former members of the Islamic State group to death.

Those involved in the killing of 53 people and vandalizing public property in the western city of Sabrata were sentenced to death, the statement said.

Another 16 militants were sentenced to prison terms, two of them for life. The court did not specify when the judgment will be enforced.

After years of civil war, Libya remains divided into two rival governments. Disagreements between the capital Tripoli and authorities in eastern Libya have led to widespread lawlessness.

The militias have also amassed vast wealth and power by kidnapping and controlling the country’s lucrative human-trafficking trade.

The extremist group expanded its presence in Libya after a 2011 uprising toppled and killed longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi. IS militants first captured Darna in 2014 and later captured Sirte and the surrounding areas of the city of Sabratha.

Unlike Syria and Iraq, however, IS was unable to profit from the chaos and take over large swathes of Libya. Instead, the group is confined to the administrative districts of the oil-rich North African country, unable to achieve supremacy among Libya’s many well-armed militias that are tightly tied to tribal loyalties.

Several IS training camps are located outside Sabratha. In early 2016, about 700 militants, mostly Tunisians, were stationed in the area. In March 2016, affiliates of the group briefly took over the city’s security headquarters, beheaded 12 Libyan security officials, and then blocked nearby roads with their headless bodies.

Sirte’s central Martyrs’ Square has been turned by ISIS into a stage for public extrajudicial executions — including beheadings by sword — for a variety of crimes.

U.S. military experts estimate that the militant group’s Libyan wing recruited some 6,000 fighters in April 2016, near the peak of its power.

IS was driven inland from its main stronghold of the coastal city of Sirte in late 2016. However, militants maintain a limited presence in small areas of the country, including the area around Sabratha.

In February 2016, the United States carried out airstrikes on an IS training camp near Sabratha, killing at least 40 people as part of its efforts to root out the Islamic State.