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Assignment: Libya: Last Stand Against Jihad?

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Libya: Last Stand Against Jihad?

16/10/2014

BBC World Service - Assignment, Libya: Last Stand Against Jihad?

Is Libya becoming a failed state, three years after the fall of Col Gaddafi?

Tim Whewell is one of the few foreign reporters who have made it to Tobruk, the last toehold of Libya’s elected authorities. Now Islamist-led militias have taken over much of the country. He reports for Assignment on why Libya’s on the verge of becoming a failed state, three years after an international campaign of airstrikes helped rebels overthrow Col Gaddafi.  

Now, the conflict in Libya is becoming in part a proxy war between competing powers in the Middle East – and militant jihadis are taking advantage of the chaos to spread their influence. In Benghazi, there are daily assassinations of officials, journalists and activists – and in Derna, an hour’s drive from Tobruk, one jihadi group says the town has become part of the 'caliphate' declared by Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq. Peace talks between the elected parliament in Tobruk and the Islamist-dominated rival authorities in the capital Tripoli, have so far made little progress – and there are now fears that in the long run extremists in Libya could pose an even greater threat to the rest of the world than those in Syria and Iraq.  

Produced by Phil Kemp

(Photo: The Libyan Navy controls one section of the coast, but other parts are in the hands of Jihadis. BBC copyright)

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