[31][32] During the next few months, they declared war on anyone in Derna who opposed them, killing judges, civic leaders and other opponents, including local militants who rejected their authority such as the al-Qaeda-allied Abu Salim Martyrs Brigade.

[32][34] On 13 November 2014, al-Baghdadi released an audio recording in which he accepted pledges of allegiance from supporters in five countries, including Libya, and announced the expansion of his group to those territories.

[13] In December 2014, IS recruiters in Turkey told their Libyan associates to stop sending fighters to Syria and to focus on domestic attacks, according to the Wall Street Journal.

[1] On 30 March 2015, Ansar al-Sharia's general Sharia jurist Abu Abdullah Al-Libi pledged allegiance to IS, a number of the group's members defected with him.

[41][42] The city of Sirte had been loyal to Muammar Gaddafi and suffered massive damage at the conclusion of the 2011 Civil War,[43] later becoming home to militant Islamist groups like Ansar al-Sharia.

[44][45] The group reportedly recruited many locals, former Gaddafi supporters alienated from the post-war political order in Libya, after they "repented" and pledged allegiance to al-Baghdadi.

[57] In early 2016, the Khalifa Haftar-led Libyan National Army, reportedly with the assistance of French Special Forces, captured parts of Benghazi that had been held by IS for months.

[58] In February 2016, a U.S. air strike targeted an IS training camp near Sabratha, killing more than 40 people including the Tunisian IS member Noureddine Chouchane, linked to the 2015 Sousse attacks,[59][60] as well as two Serbians who had been kidnapped by IS in 2015.

[66] Over a course of ten days in 2019, from September 19 to 29, AFRICOM claimed airstrikes that they carried out on the Islamic State in southwestern Libya on four separate occasions left 43 militants dead.

[69] The IS central command also regards its forces' continued presence in Libya as important due to the area being a useful springboard for terrorist attacks on Europe[70] and for an expansion into and connection with Sub-Saharan Africa.

[74] Libyan intelligence chiefs claimed in early February 2016, that the Islamic State is recruiting fighters from Africa's poorest nations, including Chad, Mali and Sudan.

[76] The "Media Office for Cyrenaica Province" has published photos and other material showing buildings with IS insignia, suicide bombers, parades, and pledges of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

"Instructions on wearing the hijab according to Sharia By late 2014, Derna was fully under IS control, with the Black Standard flying over government buildings, police cars carrying IS insignia, and the local football stadium being used for public executions.

Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW Middle East, and North Africa director said, "Commanders should understand that they may face domestic or international prosecution for the grave rights abuses their forces are committing.

None of Ansar al Sharia's allies in the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council, the Islamist coalition fighting General Khalifa Haftar's forces for control of territory, pledged allegiance to Baghdadi.

The statement was viewed as an attempt to explain away the growing issue of the extremists in western Libya, with IS supporters said to be present at the Majr camp in Zliten, and in Sabratha.

[105] Prime Minister of Malta Joseph Muscat and Leader of the Opposition Simon Busuttil called for the United Nations and European Union to intervene in Libya to prevent the country from becoming a failed state.