“And you will be hated by all for my name;
whoever endures to the end shall be saved.”
(Mark 13:13)

Despite the brutal massacres of the militants of the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant", which have already become familiar, the whole world was shocked, the video of which was published on February 15, 2015. However, this case is far from the first in a series of killings and discrimination against Christians in Libya over the past few years, and certainly not the last. This article will tell you what brought Christianity in Libya the so-called. "Arab spring", which began in 2011 in the region of the Middle East and North Africa.

The expulsion of the Christian population inevitably leads to the polarization of society and the strengthening of radical sentiments in it.

Libya is currently ranked 13th in the ranking of the most dangerous countries for Christians by the human rights organization Open Doors, located between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. This means that Libya has received the status of a country that is closed and hostile to Christians, where no one can guarantee their safety. In any Islamic country, the presence of Christians indicates the level of security and stability, is a kind of litmus test. The expulsion of the Christian population always inevitably leads to the polarization of society and the strengthening of radical sentiments in it. There is no doubt that the Islamic community, after some time, will reap the bitter fruits of the destruction of Christianity - the last obstacle in the way of extremists who are alien to the universal values ​​of morality and justice, for whom the sacred gift of human life means nothing.

Let's go back to the origins of the current situation. The "Arab Spring" is commonly understood as a series of coups d'état and protest movements in many countries of the Arab world. Events developed according to the classical pattern: the opposition receives extensive support from the West, the protests are under the auspices of the overthrow of the existing "dictatorial authorities" and the struggle for freedom and democracy, under foreign influence the conflict is catalyzed and turns into a "civil" war. Similar processes were observed in Iraq in 2003, in Syria, Tunisia and other countries in 2011.

In Libya in 2011 there was a high standard of living, education and social security of the population

It should be borne in mind that in Libya at that time there was a very high standard of living, education and social security of the population, i.e., popular discontent could not be a fundamental reason. It is generally accepted that the main motive for the military conflict was the crisis in the relationship between the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and the tribal clans. It is not our task to analyze in detail the causes and course of the conflict, so we will focus on how these events affected the Christians of Libya.

The history of Libya, as well as other countries of the region, from the first centuries AD. inextricably linked with Christianity. The holy evangelist Mark was associated with Libya. Libya has a large number of ancient Christian temples and cemeteries. From the first centuries of Christianity, Libya was the pastoral territory of the Alexandrian Orthodox Church, and the title of Patriarch of Alexandria to this day includes the names of Libya and Pentapolis (as the Libyan region of Cyrenac, which consisted of five cities, was called in ancient times). The Coptic Church also has a long presence in the Libyan lands. Undoubtedly, Christianity has long and deep roots in Libya.

Before the start of the conflict in 2011, Christians in Libya made up about 3% of the population, or 100-150 thousand people. Among them, there were 60 thousand Copts (mostly who came to work from Egypt) and 50 thousand Catholics (Roman Catholic, Melkite, Maronite churches), there was a certain number of Orthodox communities, represented mainly by Russians, Greeks and Serbs, as well as several Protestant associations: Anglicans, Pentecostals, and others. Archpriest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate Zakharia Kerstyuk, who had repeatedly visited Libya before, noted that before the war, Christians in Libya were safe, did not experience discrimination, and the country itself prospered.

With the beginning of the active phase of the coup in Libya, it became clear that among the so-called. The rebels host a large number of extremists. According to Russian orientalists, Gaddafi's main opponents are radical Islamists. There is a very high percentage of people from Libya in the ranks of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq. There is evidence that US diplomats in Libya were well aware as early as 2008 that Libya's Benghazi hosted one of the world's largest breeding grounds for jihadists and shahids among al-Qaeda supporters.

The Iraqi scenario was repeated again, when the country, with the help of foreign "friends", is plunged into chaos and devastation

Nevertheless, the rebels received open support from the Western alliance and international organizations, primarily the UN, which, by Security Council resolution No. 1973 of March 18, 2011, authorized the use of military force to “protect” the rebels. The Arabian monarchies, in particular, Qatar, also supported the rebels with weapons and militants. The Iraqi scenario has been repeated again, when the country, with the help of foreign "friends", is plunged into chaos and devastation, while extremist terrorist groups driven by a thirst for blood and violence are multiplying and strengthening in it. The first victims of radicals are always locals - this was clearly shown by the example of Iraq, which has lost three-quarters of its Christian population since 2003. All external players were well aware of this, but they preferred to hush up the problem, since they apparently do not care about the fate of Christians.

Christians in Libya are being killed just because they are Christians

With the fall of the Gaddafi regime, Libyan Christians have fallen on extremely difficult times. The chaos and permissiveness generated by the coup unleashed the hands of radical groups, which immediately began to destroy Christianity. Militants killed and kidnapped Christians regardless of religion, nationality or political views. And if in Egypt or Syria, attacks on Christians are diligently presented by many media as a reaction of the opposition to support by Christians of the ruling regimes, then such a parallel cannot be drawn in relation to Libya: Christians are killed just because they are Christians. Radicals regard Christians as idolaters. Occupying new territories, the militants first of all begin to destroy all objects of Christian worship: crosses, temples, icons, sculptures and cemeteries of Christians, as well as tombs and mosques of Shia Muslims, and in some cases Sunnis.

Speaking about the attack on churches, it is worth mentioning that the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George in Tripoli was attacked at least three times: on August 25, 2011, he was robbed, on May 7, 2012, the church was fired upon, the priest almost died, on September 16, 2012, unknown people entered the temple and desecrated it. Other churches in Libya were also targeted by the radicals, with arson, explosions and shelling becoming a regular occurrence.

Now in Libya, any form of mission is prohibited, under the ban of the Bible, only foreigners are allowed to go to temples

Christians were persecuted not only by isolated extremist gangs. The new "authorities" of Libya have introduced severe restrictions against Christians. So, any form of mission is prohibited, under the ban of the Bible, only foreigners are allowed to go to temples. Authorities openly say that there is no place for Christians in Libya and that they can pose a threat to national security. Crimes against Christians go completely unpunished. Moreover, in February-March 2013, 50 to 100 Copts were arrested on suspicion of proselytism. The detainees were subjected to severe torture, one of them died as a result. The Copts were later released. On March 3, 2013, the EU Delegation to Libya, as a reaction to the arrest and torture of Copts, made an official statement in which it expressed serious concern about the situation with religious freedom in Libya, calling on the country's leadership to respect the rights of prisoners. The reaction followed the next day: on March 14, a Coptic church was set on fire in Benghazi; On March 15, 4 Egyptian Christians were detained by security forces in Misrata without explanation.

If you look at the news reports on the situation in Libya from 2011 to the present, then there will regularly appear cases of murders of Christians, ritual executions, executions, abductions, attacks on temples, desecration of cemeteries. The victims of the militants were mainly Copts, since the rest of the Christians, due to the threats of the Islamists, for the most part, had already left the country.

On April 5, 2013, the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate issued a statement “On the facts of discrimination against Christians in Libya”, which listed the latest facts of the persecution of Christians at that time.

In February 2014, seven Copts were kidnapped, taken to the desert and shot at point-blank range with shotguns.

The murder of 21 Copts in Libya was preceded by other massacres of Christians. Let us recall only the loudest of recent cases. In February 2014, Ansar al-Sharia (shariah) militants, now an ISIS affiliate in North Africa, announced a reward in Benghazi for the killing of Christians. At the same time, seven Copts were kidnapped, taken to the desert, and shot at point-blank range with shotguns.

At the end of December 2014, militants committed a brutal murder of a Coptic family in Sirte: breaking into the house, they shot their father and mother, kidnapped their 13-year-old daughter, who was then found shot dead in the desert. It is noteworthy that the attackers did not touch the material values ​​of Christians.

The apogee of the persecution of Christians in Libya was the brutal execution of 21 Coptic fishermen, previously abducted in Benghazi, by militants of the mentioned Ansar Al-Sharia group at the same time. The execution was preceded by an appeal by one of the militants containing threats of reprisals against Christians. The terrorist speaks in Arabic with an American accent that ISIS will fight Christians until “…Isa (peace be upon him!) comes and breaks the cross, kills the pig and imposes Jizya!” Christians died as martyrs: they accepted death with dignity, pronouncing the name of the Lord. This tells us that the extremists have not achieved their goals. They failed to sow panic among Christians, on the contrary, the grief of the Coptic Church was shared by the entire Egyptian people and the entire Christian world, which will be discussed in more detail below. On the one hand, this terrible execution is certainly a mournful event. But on the other hand, the martyrs with their blood again and again testified to the world about Christ, for “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christianity,” as Tertullian said.

After the execution of the Copts, the Coptic Patriarch Theodore II was visited with condolences by the President of Egypt Al-Sisi and Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehlab, the Minister of Defense Sedki Sobhi, the Ministers of Social Welfare, Health and Youth Affairs. Then Theodore II was visited by the supreme imam of the main Islamic educational institution - Al-Azhar University - Ahmed At-Tayeb, as well as many other religious and public figures.

As for the reaction of the Russian Orthodox Church, on February 17, 2015, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' sent written condolences to the President of Egypt and the Primate of the Coptic Church, where he noted that the activities of extremists are aimed at undermining the centuries-old balance of good neighborly relations between Christians and Muslims.

The Coptic Church canonized 21 Christians killed by ISIS in Libya as saints, it is planned to build a temple in their honor, and the Egyptian authorities will pay monthly allowances to the families of those killed. The governor of the Egyptian province of Minya, S. Ziyada, ordered that the native village of the murdered Copts be renamed "The Village of the Martyrs". The synod of the Coptic Church also ordered the creation of a special committee to collect data on the Copts in Libya, with a view to returning them to Egypt.

Egyptian President Abdelfattah Al-Sisi, immediately after receiving news of the inhuman execution of Christians, urgently convened a meeting of the Egyptian Security Council, it was decided to immediately respond to terror with airstrikes on militant positions in Libya, Egyptian citizens were banned from entering Libya. Curiously, the Qatari ambassador to Egypt was recalled for consultations due to the fact that the representative of Egypt in the Arab League accused Qatar of supporting terrorism. In this regard, it is also worth noting that Qatar has previously been very active in supporting Egyptian President M. Morsi, who was overthrown in 2013, under which Christians in Egypt were persecuted with impunity at the hands of supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. For this, Qatar even temporarily found itself in isolation among other Arabian monarchies (the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, which supported the current President Al-Sisi), who did not approve of such interference in the internal affairs of Egypt. Thus, the position of Qatar in relation to the anti-Christian activities of ISIS in Libya becomes clear.

Egypt's reaction to the execution of its citizens echoes that of Jordan, which also responded with bombings to the burning alive of a captive Jordanian pilot by ISIS in early 2015. It is possible that the ideas of Arab socialism and pan-Arabism, which united Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Libya, Lebanon and Iraq in the 20th century, have not yet fully exhausted themselves in the Middle East.

There is no stability and democracy in Libya

All of the above suggests that there is no stability and democracy in Libya. The coup of 2011 brought only devastation, death and suffering to this country. The fruit of the irresponsible, sovereign affairs of Libya was the almost complete eradication of Christianity in this country. Raymond Ibrahim, an American Coptic-born expert, says Libya is still "open for Christian hunting season."

Obviously, few Christians can live in such conditions. According to Open Doors, no more than 35,000 Christians remained in Libya as of 2015, i.e. About 80% of Christians left the country in 3 years. The rest are mostly Egyptian Copts working in Libya. However, after the recent massacre of Coptic fishermen, Egyptian Christians began to leave Libya en masse. According to media reports, more than 10 thousand people have poured into Egypt in recent days. Among them were the Copts, who managed to survive being captured by the Islamists. According to the testimonies of Christians, jihadists regularly tortured them, deprived them of water and food, humiliated them and constantly insulted them.

The Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli, Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, said that fewer Christians remain in Libya, and a small group of Filipino health workers who help the sick remained under the care of the Catholic archpastor.

Alien radicals who received carte blanche from the Western "friends" of Libya, Syria and Iraq, as well as from the Middle Eastern monarchies represented by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, are responsible for the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

The execution of Copts in Libya serves as another confirmation that for the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, not the local Muslim neighbors of Christians, but alien radicals, who actually received carte blanche from Western "friends" during the events of the Arab Spring, are more responsible Libya, Syria and Iraq, as well as from the Middle Eastern monarchies represented by Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The mass execution of Copts was not, in its essence, something new in post-war Libya. Rather, it brought the world to the red line, which will be followed by significant changes in attitudes towards extremists. It is difficult to say whether the supporters of “military democracy” and Islamic authoritarianism will become sober or will continue to act solely for their own interests.

There is a war going on in Syria. Participating in this war are the regular armies of the two states, limited contingents of dozens of sympathetic states, private armies and hundreds of militant groups of various persuasions. The war is being fought for the right to have a history, for the right to be called a person, in general, for all the rights that the Islamists are trying to take away from us. But this is Syria. They were not allowed to overthrow the Assad government and plunge the country into absolute hell. But in Libya, official power simply does not exist. And no one even thinks to put things in order in a previously prosperous country. Is it any wonder that it is there that ISIS and al-Qaeda militants (both terrorists) are activated, trying to recoup their defeat in Syria?

Let's see what's going on in Libya.

(Map of division of Libya is clickable. Reds - Selected government. Greens - alternative government General National Congress. Yellow - Tuareg tribes and other raiders. Blue - the lands of local self-governors. Grays are ISIS and other jihadists.)

Sat, 06 Feb 2016 - 20:26

The number of ISIS fighters in Libya has doubled to 6,500, according to a U.S. intelligence report released by CNN on Feb. 4, citing a number of officials, Newsweek magazine reported.

The White House released details from a US intelligence report that says there are 25,000 ISIS fighters in the territory of the self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq. In comparison with the previous report, the number of fighters has decreased by 6,000 people.

An official from the US Department of Defense commented on this to ABC News. In his opinion, the decrease in the number of groups is due to factors such as coalition airstrikes, forcing ISIS to transfer its fighters to Libya, losses from airstrikes, reducing the attractiveness of the organization for potential jihadists and tightening border controls by Turkey.

Recall that the group in Libya holds only the city of Sirte, although their presence was previously significant in the eastern city of Derna, before they were forced out of it by rival forces in July 2015

Did anything come up? Without context, we can’t understand anything, so I’ll try to describe the situation.

After the overthrow of Gaddafi in 2011, the tribes began to cut each other. The main forces are a tribe, conditionally, of the descendants of King Idris I, with a center in Trippoli, and a tribe of Gaddafi's relatives, with a center in the city of Sirte. Around them grew a whole field of combat groups, large and small, from the semi-savage tribes of the Tuareg, to the regular army of Sudan, which occupied part of the oil-bearing regions. A period of constant confrontation began. Gradually, the Gaddafi clan turned out to be defeated (or reborn, as you like), but the coalition of groups near Trippoli also split (it was not united, by and large). By 2014, two rival governments had formed vying for power in Libya. On the one hand, a capable parliament was somehow elected in Tobruk. On his behalf, the regular army operates (at least what is called an army). It's more or less secular. On the other hand, pro-IslamicThe General National Congress in Tripoli - part of the clan, marked by the descendants of Idris, but very significantly changed, having absorbed a lot of other things.
ISIS has intervened in this confrontation. He flirts with some, negotiates with others, then fights with both, and so on. But Libya was not the main target for ISIS - they need recruits for Syria. Now that Syria is lost, some of the Islamists are returning to Libya, where they are stepping up their activities.
It is noteworthy that the US and the UN are also not left out. They decided to put another force into the process - the presidential council (Government of People's Salvation, PNS) - and demanded that both of them and the third recognize this council as the only legitimate authority, defeat ISIS, stop the flow of refugees across the sea, build a prosperous state by selling oil, etc. As a result, this council sits in the same port where the Western military landed it, and is afraid to go anywhere.
Is it worth it to say that the stability of the state in this way is not strengthened in any way?

As the ISIS terrorist network cedes territory in Iraq and Syria, militants are increasingly exploiting the chaos in Libya, positioning the country as their respawn point. As Fox News writes in an ISIS article, squeezed out of Iraq and Syria, now "regrouping" in Libya, analysts say , after retreating from their Libyan “caliphate” in Sirte late last year, militants are regrouping and recruiting new followers in rural areas south from the main east-west coastal highway and in the far western town of Sabratha, which is only 60 miles from the Tunisian border.

“Their main fighting force comes from Tunisia, so Sabratha is becoming a militant hub,” noted terrorism analyst Robert Young Pelton told Fox News. “ISIS could quickly re-emerge in Libya.” Colonel Ahmed al-Mismari, a spokesman for the Libyan Armed Forces, told Fox News that ISIS* first appeared in Libya in late 2013, before its dominance in Iraq, and was formed from Muslim Brotherhood-linked militias and dissidents. Al-Qaeda in the Libyan eastern port city of Derna near the Egyptian border. But over time, ISIS appears to have moved its operatives from the eastern Egyptian border and is now gathering closer to the western Tunisian side. The terrorist group recently set up camps 25 miles east of the city of Bani Walid and also south of Sirte, al-Mismari said.

Mohamed Ghasri, spokesman and senior commander of the Al-Bunyan Al-Marsus unit, which has fought bloody battles with ISIS militants in Sirte, said last week that they are also monitoring the group's movements south of Sirte, where it is” trying to regroup and break through the lines of our troops in the south.” Joseph Fallon, expert on Islamic extremism and fellow at U.K. The Defense Forum agreed that "ISIS has retreated south of Sirte to regroup" and that its global threat should not be underestimated. “Here, the group could endanger Western interests through guerrilla warfare, sabotaging oil facilities and ports in Libya, and using targeted terrorism to provoke mass migration of people and destabilize neighboring countries and Europe,” the expert said. A significant part of the oil fields, reserves, as well as the main oil refineries of Libya is located south of Sirte. The country has the largest reserves in Africa, and light oil of optimal quality is in great demand. Despite the ongoing political crisis, Libyan production rose to 885,000 barrels a day last week, three times the level of last year. This has made the region even more important in terms of the global oil balance, and the presence of ISIS raises significant concerns.

The terrorist group has used the oil fields in Iraq and Syria as a vehicle to finance its barbaric rule. More fighters are expected to arrive in Libya as pressure on Iraq and Syria mounts. How large ISIS is in Libya today is still largely undetermined.

In March, General of the Marine Corps Thomas Waldhauser, the head of the US African Command, told Pentagon reporters that the number of militants had fallen below 200, compared with 5,000-6,000 a year earlier. But a spokesman for the African Command told Fox News this week that their strength is estimated at 500. In turn, al-Mismari from the Libyan Armed Forces said that the number of ISIS is much higher - "from 5 to 7 thousand people of different nationalities." The terrorist group has a good chance of recovering its territorial losses in Mosul, Raqqa and Sirte, Pelton said, as an advanced propaganda machine ensures a constant recruitment of fighters.

“ISIS is a multinational franchise backed by funding, trainers and PR packages,” Pelton said. “They look for bands, rebrand them, and then those bands project the image of an international organization using standard logos, messaging, and even criteria for creating tweets and videos.”

Since the death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and the ensuing maneuvers by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration to support the rebels in their pursuit of regime change, Libya as a country remains in a protracted state of conflict, which has created a breeding ground for violent militants. The state is filled with radical militias, weapons, human traffickers, and two major factions among many others competing.

The US-backed Government of National Unity in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Faiz Sarraj, is in conflict with the Libyan Armed Forces, which is led by Egyptian-backed General Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi. A US official from the Government of National Unity told Fox News on condition of anonymity that the “political vacuum and insecurity” that has existed in the country since 2011 has allowed ISIS to take root” in Libya. "ISIS continues to pose a threat not only to Libya," the US official added, "but also to its neighbors, Europe and the US."

*Terrorist organization banned in Russia

On Tuesday, December 1, UN monitors warned that Libya is turning into a key ISIS stronghold, located in close proximity to the coastlines of Europe.

The warning echoes U.S. intelligence officials' assessment that the organization's franchise is gaining ground amid the chaos in the North African country.

The expansion of the ISIS presence beyond Iraq and Syria raises the question of what impact a year of continuous air campaign has had on this group. Over the past few months, the Islamic State has suffered military defeats in northeastern Iraq and Syria, but at the same time it has managed to organize and carry out several large-scale terrorist attacks abroad.

Context

Islamists are a weak adversary

Who will deal with ISIS in Libya?

Empty the ISIS cash register

The main task is the fight against ISIS

The UN report says that approximately 3.5 thousand Libyan citizens left their homeland to join jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq. Of these, 800 fighters returned to Libya to join the local ISIS affiliate. To assess the current strategy of ISIS, it is necessary to carefully consider the movements of Libyan fighters.

In Syria and Iraq, Libyan jihadists were responsible for some key operations, including the suppression of the uprising in Deir ez-Zor and the seizure of territories in Kirkuk last year. The group in which they fought, the al-Battar battalion, is known for its constant suicide attacks and the ruthless extermination of the local population after the seizure of territories. Although the majority of the fighters in this unit are from Libya, it also includes fighters from Europe, mainly Belgium and France, as well as from Tunisia.

Together with Chechens and Uzbeks from other groups, the militants of the al-Battar battalion, whose number reaches several hundred, perform the functions of "special forces" in ISIS. The Islamic State does not have many organized groups that could compete with them in strength: among them are Jaish al-Khalifa (Army of the Caliphate) and Jaish al-Badiya (Army of the Desert). It seems rather odd that such an elite force is leaving the country amid mounting pressure, which is why some Western officials suspect it could be a sign that ISIS is looking for a replacement base.

Meanwhile, ISIS is taking steps that testify more to the stability of the position of this group, and not to the fact that it is under serious pressure and is trying to find alternative bases. For example, one ISIS deserter who was interviewed by the Daily Beast in November said that ISIS has recently begun dismantling its brigades, which were created solely on an ethnic and regional basis, a move that could collapse at a critical moment. On the ground, this group has minimized its presence in the cities under its control, and in some cases even left them.

Despite the aerial bombing campaign and the advance of the ground forces in some areas, the Islamic State is actually under less pressure than before. Clashes between the Iraqi military and ISIS have been relatively infrequent in the past few months, owing to the political crisis in Baghdad stemming from Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's reforms and the growing reluctance of people to fight against ISIS outside Shiite territories. Even the November takeover of Sinjar by the Kurds, which was heralded as evidence of ISIS weakness, was really just the final push in a hopeless struggle by the Islamic State, which by then had already lost 70% of the city.

Now ISIS seems to be focusing on expanding its presence outside of Syria and Iraq and building an international network. The bombing of a Russian passenger plane, the Paris attacks and the rise of influence in Libya are signs that ISIS is looking to capitalize on its success in Syria and Iraq by expanding its international network. This is hardly a sign of weakness.

Hasan Hassan is an Associate Fellow at the Chatham House International Institute and a Foreign Fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Near East Policy.

ISIS is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.

Map of fragmented Libya

Special units of NATO countries have been quietly operating in Libya for several months now, small arms, ammunition, light armored vehicles have been supplied to the regime in Tripoli, contingents from Britain, France and Italy are deployed on a permanent basis in Misurata and Benghazi.

The fact is that, in fact, the Islamists already control territories that are only about 250 km from the beginning of the European Italian land, which of course poses a remarkable threat to the European Union ...

The Daily Mail claims that British soldiers and at least 600 Italian "peacekeepers" are already "on the ground"
(while it is true that no one gave them any mandate for "peacekeeping" ..., so legally this is all an illegal invasion)

According to the Israeli publication "DEBKAfile", which is actually the public information service of the Israeli military intelligence in addition to the Italians, American and British special forces are also stationed there. (So in fact, these named countries are already waging another ground war - now in Libya)

What happened:

One of the main goals of NATO special forces was to conduct intelligence for a future military operation, which will already involve thousands of NATO troops. They do not enter into hostilities, but on April 27 everything went wrong.

A large convoy of Italian and British special forces, accompanied by militants of the so-called government of national accord, advanced towards the city of Sirte, which is currently the unofficial capital of ISIS in Libya, in order to reconnoiter the area, but she herself was ambushed ...

The fact that ISIS has a strong position in Libya has long been known. Many Libyan militants went through a good school in Iraq and Syria, and now they set the tone in their homeland. In addition, according to unconfirmed reports, many leaders of the ISIS terrorist organization banned in Russia have moved to northern Africa, to a safer place.

ISIS seriously fortifies approaches to the city in the event of an enemy attack, and reconnaissance of the area was justified. However, during the movement along the Misurata-Sirte highway, the convoy was first attacked by suicide bombers in cars with explosives, and then the militants set off disguised roadside bombs and artillery.

... shahid-mobiles were attached to it and at the indicated moment they blew themselves up. After that, the column was fired from mortars, machine guns and small arms. French and Italian planes and attack helicopters flew to the rescue, under the cover of which the convoy fled back to Misurata. How many Italians died, the Israelis do not report. They don’t report about the losses of the Libyans, but who actually counts them now.

The column was saved from complete defeat only by NATO aircraft, which suppressed the enemy's firing points and allowed the military of Italy and Great Britain to retreat to their place of deployment in a more or less organized manner. However, according to an Israeli publication the Western military suffered losses not only in killed, but also captured.

Note that there is no official confirmation of this information, according to the Israelis, NATO classified information in the defeat of the column, and Italy is urgently ready to increase its contingent in Libya to six thousand troops at the expense of the 1st Special Forces Brigade, Britain will increase its presence to one thousand troops. The NATO military is already located just 200 kilometers from the Libyan coast at the Cervia airbase.
http://www.novorosinform.org/news/id/52158

Coat of arms of the British Special Forces.. Somewhat poured blood red

P.S. It is curious whether there will be videos with captured British commandos soon. That would be a scandal all over Europe ....

In short, the conclusion is that the British and Italians are "still those" warriors ...
It’s so incompetent to fall into a simple ambush, I wonder, what do they need satellite reconnaissance for, what are reconnaissance aircraft and drones?

In fact, this story clearly shows several things. On the one side, Europeans have finally matured to the simple idea that something needs to be done with Libya, and counteract the Islamists, and it’s no longer possible to leave the country just the way they tried to do in the first years after the assassination of Colonel Gadaffi - otherwise ISIS would have crushed most of the country under itself in the future, and thus created for itself, in addition to Iraq and Syria, another strong base, and again on the place of a rich oil field, again by chance ... But thousands of migrants still pass through Libya to Europe through Italy .. How many of them would become "infiltrated" after the victory of ISIS in Libya? Surely, a certain percentage of these already exist ...

On the other hand, this actually means that Europeans have already been drawn against their will into a land war in the Libyan desert... What the EU members stubbornly avoided doing in Syria and Iraq ... Even if we count only the Italians and the British, and there will probably be other participants, then this will already be at least 7,000 thousand military on earth, this is already enough not a bad scale, which means that real offensive operations will most likely be carried out ...

It should also be noted very good training and tactical skill of Islamist militants ISIS... Again, this means that they carried out reconnaissance, unlike the unfortunate NATO warriors... And again, the Islamist terrorists planned and carried out the operation well - they were waiting for them, and at first they "punched" by suicide bombers , and then they also gave "additives" covering everything that was, including artillery ...
So once again it was possible to make sure that the militants of the Caliphate are an extremely dangerous enemy ...

And lastly, it is quite understandable why NATO members want to keep this operation secret for the time being.
Not even because of its complete and mediocre failure. The point is also that European public opinion, for the most part, reacted very positively to the NATO war in Libya at one time - military propaganda and tales about the evil Gadaffi - the "bloody tyrant" did their job. But now come out and say that we are now fighting against the same "revolutionaries" and "democrats" who turned out to be Islamists - or rather, we knew before that they were Islamists, but they just didn't tell you that they exist ... Then people will start asking a lot of "wrong" questions that are uncomfortable for the leadership of the EU countries. And of course, to openly criticize the governments ... It’s approximately similar to getting with Afghanistan and similar to Iraq ... At first, a brave solemn intervention - and as a result, the collapse of the country, bringing its state into a permanent civil war, etc. ... And as a result - strong criticism the leaderships of the participating countries of the campaign and the losses of their political parties in the next elections.