UN says ISIL exploiting Libya security vacuum

Report says foreign recruits and Libyan veterans of wars in Syria and Iraq are entering territory held by group. Since 2013, the group’s Libyan affiliate experienced “several waves” of reinforcements, including Libyan returnees from the wars in Syria and Iraq and foreign volunteers, the report published on Tuesday said. “While currently concentrated in its stronghold in Sirte, ISIL could seek local alliances to expand its territorial control, also entailing the risk of motivating additional foreign terrorist fighters to join the group in Libya,” the report says. The report says the weakened security situation in the country had given ISIL’s commanders in Iraq and Syria their “best” opportunity to expand its control beyond those two states. “However, viewed as an outsider group, ISIL is not embedded in local communities and has not succeeded in gaining the population’s support,” the report says.