Al Qaeda Controlling Eastern Libya

Libya: Comment: On the 26th, Milan's Corriere della Sera published an article by an Italian journalist describing conditions in Libya, with special focus on eastern Libya, the region around Benghazi. Excerpts follow.

He wrote that Westerners are leaving eastern Libya. Businessmen, diplomats, and representatives of humanitarian organizations are leaving, along with the technicians who work in the oil industry.

"Rome considers that the Libyan authorities are currently 'incapable of ensuring effective control over the territory' against the Islamic fundamentalist threat. Thus 'travel in eastern, central, and southern Libya is absolutely discouraged unless motivated by stringent professional requirements which cannot opportunely be postponed.'"

Benghazi "is riven by feuding. The security forces are nowhere to be seen. The central government does not exist. The secessionist movement is growing. Garbage is rotting in the streets, and crime and the kidnapping industry are spreading...."

"Darnah, the coastal city nestling at the foot of the 'green mountains' …is now seen as an independent al-Qa'ida republic...."

" 'Al-Qa'ida's road blocks now control the roads in Darnah. They may comprise over 1,000 armed men. Their militia groups are spreading to the villages and they are occupying other cities such as Bayda in an attempt to reach Benghazi,' Libyan intelligence sources told us. The next deadline is…

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Source: Town Hall