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 Blasting though a wall, four fighters worked their way through the
heavily guarded compound before firing a rocket-propelled grenade to
breach the cells inside.
Their target, security sources say, was a jailed Libyan Islamic
State militant. Clashes erupted. Two of the attackers, a Moroccan
and a Sudanese, detonated suicide belts and shortly afterwards all
four, and the militant, were dead.
The prison break failed. But it was another illustration of the
tactics employed by an Islamic State front determined to emulate the
success of the group's founders in Iraq and Syria.
"When we see them fighting, they are well trained. There were only
four, but they destabilized the whole base," said Muaad Khalil, a
spokesman for forces at the Maitiga base. "Who would have thought to
attack this base, but they did."
Four years after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is locked
in a conflict between two rival governments -- an official one in
the east, and a self-declared one controlling Tripoli -- and the
many armed factions that back them.
 Far from the battlefields of Iraq and Syria, Islamic State has
steadily grown in Libya's chaos, controlling the city of Sirte, and
worrying Western governments who fear it can only become stronger in
the post-revolution mess.
They have left their mark on the North African state. They have
massacred Christian Egyptians on a Libyan beach, publicly flogged
criminals in Sirte, stormed oilfields, and attacked a five-star
Tripoli hotel.
But while Libya's turmoil and history of jihadism offered fertile
ground, Islamic State has run up against the heavily armed factions
and rival Islamists already in place.
Even as they lay claim to Sirte, Libya's Islamic State followers
have been ousted from Derna city by local fighters, and have shown
they cannot hold ground or muster the finances and oil resources
they benefit from in Iraq.
"They clearly want to expand from Sirte," one Western diplomat said.
"They continue to maintain the ability to carry out one-offs outside
their main area, but they are still small."
JIHADIST HISTORY
Libya has a long history of jihadism. Men from the Libya Islamic
Fighting Group fought in Afghanistan. Later, Libyan al Qaeda
militants were accused in the U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and
Kenya in 1998.
After the fall of Gaddafi, and with the steady fracturing of Libya
between rival brigades of former rebels, the Islamist militants
among them found room to grow.
One group, Ansar al Sharia in Benghazi, was blamed for the 2012
attack that killed the U.S. ambassador there.
 As in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State draws recruits from local
groups, security sources and local residents say. But Derna also
showed their limits.
Even after Islamic State leaders arrived to recruit in July,
fighting erupted as Derna Islamists and citizens fed up with foreign
jihadists drove Islamic State out.
But in Sirte, security sources and residents say, they found a more
suitable base by tapping into frustrations in Gaddafi's home town,
where many felt sidelined after the revolution.
"Daesh saw Sirte as the perfect place. Some Gaddafi followers are
now Daesh members," said local military commander Ismail Al-Mjaree,
using an Arabic name for the group. "In Derna, they didn't have that
environment."
Targeted assassinations of rivals and security officials began last
year, and Islamic State forces moved in force on Sirte in February
and March, taking a radio station and other important buildings.
Forces from Misrata - a port city that is home to one of the
country's more powerful military factions - arrived to take back
Sirte. But fearing large-scale casualties and blaming a lack of
support from Tripoli, they retreated, although hostilities may be
resumed at some point.
HIT-AND-RUN
Security sources in Tripoli and Misrata estimate Islamic State has
at least 500 fighters inside Sirte, and numbers are growing thanks
to the arrival of foreign recruits.
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Most of Islamic State's leaders are Libyan, some who spent time in
Abu Salim prison during the Gaddafi era or had ties to Ansar al
Sharia. One top leader, security sources said, is Hassan al-Karami,
a Benghazi native once jailed for Islamist militancy.
The SITE jihadi monitoring service, citing Libyan media sources,
reported that Abu Ali al-Anbari, believed to be Islamic State
governor for Syria directly under Islamic State leader Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi, had arrived in Sirte by sea.
"They control the whole city and the suburbs. No one can fight back
there now," one Libyan security source said. "They are Sudanese,
Egyptians and Tunisians in large numbers."
Tunisian gunmen who attacked foreign tourists at a hotel in Sousse
and the Bardo museum in Tunis this year were trained at camps in
Libya. Islamic State claimed both attacks, though they may have been
tied to another group.
So far, Islamic State has carried out mostly hit-and-run strikes or
high-profile attacks such as the Tripoli prison assault or the
attack on the Corinthia hotel in the capital, which killed nine
people including a French national and an American.
The group has also targeted the oil industry. It attempted to breach
the defenses of the Es Sider oil port, but failed. Its fighters
overran oilfields south of Sirte, kidnapping several foreigners, but
without taking control of the fields.
"The Islamic State in Libya doesn't have comparable revenue streams
– no oil sales, no sizeable population to tax and extort," said
Geoff Porter, a North Africa expert at West Point's Combating
Terrorism Center.
"In Libya, there is a superabundance of armed groups. For the most
part they are busy fighting each other, but they could potentially
be harnessed to eliminate Islamic State."
SHARIA LAW
Events in Sirte are hard to verify. But as in Iraq and Syria,
Islamic State appears to be slowly imposing its vision on the city,
carrying out punishments such as crucifixions and public floggings,
residents say.
Taking over city institutions and banks, Islamic State forces
merchants and shopkeepers to pay a tax that would normally go to the
state, and an Islamic court is in place.
Barbers are banned from shaving off beards and smoking Shisha pipes
in cafes has been stopped. Female students have been forced to wear
one-piece robes.
A former bank employee and other residents said the local Islamic
State organization appeared to be struggling to manage the city
financially. Prices of local goods are rising and other products are
disappearing.
"Life in Sirte is almost non-existent," one resident said. "People
do not have enough money to flee the city."
Twice in the last month, though, residents in Sirte say they saw
unidentified warplanes attacking districts controlled by Islamic
State.
Neither of Libya's two governments acknowledged responsibility
though both they and foreign countries, including the United States,
have carried out such raids in the past.
"We don't have night vision for those kind of strikes," said one
security source in Misrata. "But you know, the whole world is
against Islamic State now."
(Reporting by Patrick Markey; Editing by Giles Elgood)
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