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 The militants have effectively taken over former dictator Muammar
Gaddafi's home city of Sirte as they exploit a civil war between two
rival governments to expand in North Africa.
"Every night they open fire on us," said Abu Shebar, who with
comrades on Sirte's western outskirts holds the last position of
troops belonging to one of the two warring Libyan governments, the
General National Congress, which controls the capital Tripoli and
most of the west of the country.
"They are only active at night," he said, pointing to the militants'
position in a house just down the road blocked by sandbags. He
sleeps in a shed next to his firing positions where used tank shells
litter the ground.
Libya, which has descended into near anarchy since NATO warplanes
helped rebels overthrow Gaddafi in a 2011 civil war, is now the
third big stronghold for the Sunni Islamist group, also known as
ISIS or ISIL, which declared a Caliphate to rule over all Muslims
from territory it holds in Syria and Iraq.
Islamic State fighters became a major force last year in Derna, a
jihadi bastion in Libya's east, and quickly spread to the biggest
eastern city Benghazi, where they have conducted suicide bombings on
streets divided among armed factions.
 By occupying Sirte over the past four months they have claimed a
major city in the center of the country, astride the coastal highway
that links the east and west.
They made their presence known to the world in February by
kidnapping and beheading more than 20 Egyptian Christian oil workers
on a beach and posting video on the Internet.
In Libya, the group deploys locally-recruited fighters, led by
envoys sent from Syria and Iraq. Those include Libyans returned from
fighting on Syrian and Iraqi frontlines, steeped in the group's
ethos of extreme violence and permanent warfare between those it
considers true Sunni Muslims and all others.
Their gains in Libya, just across the sea from Italy, are worrying
European governments and north African neighbors. But so far Western
countries, which are bombing Islamic State positions in Syria and
Iraq, have steered clear of that sort of intervention in Libya.
BREAKDOWN
Islamic State's expansion in Libya has been helped by a breakdown of
state authority.
Neither of Libya's two warring governments exercises much formal
control of territory. Both field troops that call themselves armies
but are in fact loose alliances of former rebels who toppled
Gaddafi, refused to disarm, and have since fallen out along tribal,
political and regional lines.
Both governments pay fighters with cash from Libya's oil exports,
giving them funds and incentive to fuel the war indefinitely.
Islamic State opposes both governments, exploiting local resentments
and power vacuums. It took Sirte from the government based in
Tripoli, which draws its support mainly from fighters from the
western city of Misrata, who emerged as some of the most powerful in
the country after Gaddafi's fall.
Islamic State gunmen arrived in the area in pickup trucks in
February when the Misrata forces were busy 150 km to the east trying
to wrestle away Libya's biggest oil port, Es Sider, from forces
backing the other government, now based in the east.
With Misrata troops having spread out on front lines stretching
1,000 km, militants swiftly seized a Sirte hospital, a university,
the grand Ouagadougou hall where Gaddafi once hosted African leaders
and a radio station broadcasting Quranic verses. When the Misratis returned in force to Sirte in March after failing
to seize Es Sider, Islamic State had already set up checkpoints. The
jihadists have since steadily widened their control. The last
checkpoint held by the Misratis is now about a kilometer further
from the city center than it was when Reuters visited two months
ago.
"They are now shelling the power station so we've moved back the
last checkpoint for civilians," said Yuhami Ahmed, a commander of
the Misrata troops based on the western outskirts near a plant that
supplies the area with electricity.
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The Misrata forces have surrounded Sirte and are diverting traffic
on the coastal road to the desert hinterland. Anti-aircraft guns
guard checkpoints.
Sirte residents who pass between the two frontlines to get petrol in
suburbs under control of the Misrata forces describe hardship inside
a city no longer served by the state oil firm. "We only have power
sometimes," said the owner of a cafe at a petrol station who gave
his name as Salah.
Another resident fetched water in a closed restaurant used by the
Misratis as a rest area. He said he had no water at home.
GADDAFI LOYALISTS
The Misrata forces compare the standoff to 2011, when Gaddafi made
his last stand in Sirte while they besieged and shelled it. Gaddafi
was eventually captured and lynched by rebels outside Sirte after
trying to escape on the same road again blockaded by the Misratis.
Yuhami, the Misrata commander near the power plant, said their new
opponent Islamic State was strong because of the backing of Gaddafi
loyalists and foreigners.
"They have been joined by foreigners, Sudanese, Tunisians,
Egyptians, Yemenis," he said, standing in front of Toyota truck, the
standard vehicle of his troops. "They have 106's," he said,
referring to large caliber guns.
He and several of his men put the number of Islamic State militants
in Sirte at more than hundred.
So far, Islamic State has not gained territory as quickly in Libya
as it did in Iraq and Syria, where it portrays itself as defenders
of Sunni Islam in sectarian wars against governments led by Shi'ite
Muslims.
Libyans are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslims, and their divisions tend
to be tribal and regional rather than sectarian. Islamic State
fighters have had to compete with rival Libyan militant groups who
resent the presence of outsiders. But Sirte, where homes were looted by Misrata rebels after Gaddafi's
fall, is fertile ground. Many residents feel they were losers in the
revolution and harbor resentment towards the Misrata fighters.
"Before the revolution life was so much better. We had electricity,
security. Schools were always open," said Mohammed Ali, a student
living in a suburb near the power plant.
"They (Islamic State) are fine. They leave you alone unless you
fight them," he said.
He said he had seen Tunisians and other foreigners joining the
group, and also Gaddafi loyalists. That would be a similar pattern
to Iraq, where former officers from secular dictator Saddam
Hussein's army have supported Islamic State.
The group has managed to stage suicide bombings on Misrata forces
near the power plant and at highway checkpoints, including one on
the outskirts of Misrata which frightened residents.
"We are worried about Daesh," said Ali al-Mahdy, a bookshop owner in
central Misrata, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State which the
group considers derogatory. "We need to fight them."
(Editing by Peter Graff)
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