Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/602004
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 15 NOVEMBER 2015 4 News Pentagon claims IS leader killed CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 US officials said the strikes in Libya are unrelat- ed to the series of terror attacks that took place across Paris on Friday. The Pentagon said the strike dem- onstrated that it would "go after ISIS leaders wherever they operate." Friday's air strikes signify a new chapter in the US fight against ISIS, which has set foot in the North Af- rican country after taking control of large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria. Islamic State fighters have filled the vacuum created by the ongoing violence in Libya, which is home to some 1,500 armed groups and two rival governments vying for control of the country's territory and vast oil reserves. ISIS fighters have taken control of deposed dictator Muammar Gadd- afi's hometown of Sirte and the coastal city of Derna. Security sourc- es in Tripoli estimate Islamic State has at least 500 fighters inside Sirte, and numbers are growing thanks to the arrival of foreign recruits. The group's presence in Libya caught the world's attention in January, when it carried out a bomb attack that killed 10 people in the Maltese-owned Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli. A month later, ISIS beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians on a Libyan beach, prompting Cairo to launch air strikes in response. Islamic State also claimed respon- sibility for two attacks carried out by Tunisian gunmen trained in Libya against foreign tourists at a hotel in Sousse and the Bardo museum in Tunis earlier this year. Although news out of Sirte is hard to verify, Islamic State fighters have reportedly imposed Sharia law in the city, carrying out punishments such as crucifixions and public flog- gings. Taking over city institutions and banks, Islamic State forces mer- chants and shopkeepers to pay a tax that would normally go to the state, and an Islamic court is in place. Barbers are banned from shaving off beards and smoking Shisha pipes in cafes has been stopped. Female students have been forced to wear one-piece robes. A former bank employee and other residents said the local Islamic State organisation appeared to be strug- gling to manage the city financially. Prices of local goods are rising and other products are disappearing. Twice in the last month, though, residents in Sirte say they saw uni- dentified warplanes attacking dis- tricts controlled by Islamic State. Despite its successes in the coun- try, ISIS does face challenges in Libya. Virtually all of Libya's Mus- lims are Sunni, meaning the country doesn't have the same sectarian ten- sion found in Iraq and Syria, which ISIS has used to its advantage. It also faces stiff competition from other longstanding Islamist groups, including Al Qaeda. Corinthia Hotel attack It was already known that ISIS adherents had proclaimed Derna as part of the caliphate in late 2014, but the attack of February 2015 on the Corinthia Hotel was a major manifestation of typical ISIS tactics: sending suicide bombers gunning down innocent people in a hotel lobby. On that day, ISIS claimed that the Corinthia attack an operation to avenge the death of al Qaeda sus- pect Nazih al-Ruqai, also known as Abu Anas al-Libi, in a US hospital in January. Libi, an alleged former al Qaeda operative, was snatched by the CIA in 2013 in Libya, for his al- leged role in the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Those two bombings killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and injured thousands more. Early in January, Libi died at the age of 50 in a New York hospital of complications from liver surgery as he was waiting to stand trial. His son Abdullah's raucous display of outrage, surrounded by Islamic State flags, on the return of his fa- ther's body could have portended the attack on the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli, which houses diplomats and security contractors. "Let Obama know that our ap- pointment with him will be in front of Allah," Abdullah al Ruqai is seen telling journalists angrily, in a YouTube video, on his father's death. "I won't forgive anyone who participated in the kidnapping of my father even if it was by mere words." File photo of Libya Dawn fighters firing an artillery cannon at IS militants near Sirte in March 2015 ISIS fighters parading in Libya's coastal city of Sirte Coleiro Preca to visit London one day before CHOGM ends President to fly to Paris today and is expected to pay homage to victims of ISIS attacks THE President of the Republic, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca is set to miss the last day of the Commonwealth meetings of heads of state and government. She is expected to leave Malta on 28 November when Queen Elizabeth, who will be residing at the Palace, also leaves. The Queen is expected to open the CHOGM conference on a Fri- day and leave on Saturday. It is believed that the Presi- dent will leave for London on the same day to visit Maltese patients who are presently un- dergoing medical care in Lon- don. Prime Minister Joseph Mus- cat may also be absent from the last day of the CHOGM meet- ing, due to an EU council meet- ing. Meanwhile, Coleiro Preca will today be in Paris to address 'The Leaders' Forum during a UNESCO conference. The meeting, planned weeks ago, will see the former social policy minister leave together with her husband this after- noon. The President has requested her head of protocol to ask the French authorities for a detour during her time in the French capital, which would enable her to visit one of the several sites where shots were fired in Paris late on Friday, resulting in heavy loss of life. The aim of the detour is to pay homage to the victims. Yesterday morning President Coleiro Preca met the French ambassador, Beatrice Le Fraper du Hellen, and expressed her deepest condolences for the numerous French victims. Coleiro Preca, who has come under some criticism for ne- glecting her constitutional commitments and effectively work around the clock to raise money for those who are ill or socially deprived, was yesterday also present at the spontaneous demonstration held in protest against the IS terrorist attacks in Paris. Queen Elizabeth with Marie Louise Coleiro Preca during a reception to mark Commonwealth Day at Marlborough House in March 2015