IS in Libya 'seeking to establish own trafficking routes to Europe' | Middle East Eye

30.1.16

IS in Libya 'seeking to establish own trafficking routes to Europe' | Middle East Eye: In a rare interview, Abdoulraouf Kara, the head of the Special Deterrence Force, also known as RADA, said IS’s control of a stretch of Libyan coastline around the central city of Sirte posed a direct danger to Europe.

Kara said more than 100 suspected IS fighters were currently being held as prisoners at the Mitiga military airport near Tripoli that RADA uses as its base and which itself came under attack by IS last year.

A controversial and charismatic figure, Kara, 35, has been accused by some of seeking to impose his own ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam and of undermining Libya’s transition to democracy since emerging as a powerful militia leader in Tripoli amid the chaos of Libya’s 2011 revolution.