Country Report on Terrorism 2023 - Chapter 5 - ISIS-Libya

Aka Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham in Libya; Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant-Libya; Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Libya; ISIS-L; ISIS-Libya; ISIL-Libya; Wilayat Barqa; Wilayat Fezzan; Wilayat Tripolitania; Wilayat Tarablus; Wilayat al-Tarabulus.

Description:  The Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham in Libya (ISIL-L) was designated as an FTO on May 20, 2016.  In 2014, then-ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi dispatched ISIS operatives from Syria to Libya to establish a branch.  In 2014, several hundred operatives set up a base in Darnah.  The following month, Baghdadi formally established the branch after announcing he had accepted oaths of allegiance from fighters in Libya.

Activities:  Since its establishment, ISIS-L has claimed responsibility for and carried out multiple attacks targeting government officials and civilians throughout Libya, including a 2015 suicide attack on a luxury hotel in Tripoli that killed eight persons, including a U.S. contractor; 2018 attacks including on Libya’s electoral commission headquarters in Tripoli that killed 14 people, a suicide attack on Libya’s National Oil Corporation headquarters that killed two persons, and on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that killed three persons; and a 2021 suicide attack at a police checkpoint in Sabhā, Libya, that killed at least two Libyan National Army personnel.  In 2022, ISIS-L attacked and killed three Libyan security personnel in southwest Libya.  This followed an attack on the same brigade a week earlier that had killed two members.  ISIS-L did not claim responsibility for any attacks in 2023.

Strength:  ISIS-L is estimated to have up to a few hundred fighters.

Location/Area of Operation:  Libya.

Funding and External Aid:  ISIS-L’s funding comes from a variety of sources, including criminal activity, such as smuggling and extortion, and external funding.  The group also receives support from ISIS.