Seven people were shot dead yesterday at a protest against Islamic State in the eastern Libyan city of Derna, residents said.
Demonstrators, angered at the amount of foreign fighters coming in to join the militant group, started marching towards its main base in the coastal settlement when gunmen opened fire into the crowd, several residents said.
About 30 people were wounded, they added.
Islamic State has thrived in Libya since two rival governments began fighting for control, leaving a security vacuum four years after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.
Western nations have grown particularly alarmed at Islamic State’s expansion beyond its strongholds in Iraq and Syria to the increasingly chaotic country just over the Mediterranean.
People were shot at a protest against Islamic State in Derna
But the Sunni Muslim movement has also faced substantial local opposition and competition from other militants and Islamist groups vying for power, territory and resources in Libya.
Nine suspected Islamic State members were killed during separate clashes yesterday with other Islamist groups, a source in one of those movements said. The fighting in Derna – a long-time gathering point for jihadists – first erupted on Tuesday after a leader in the Islamist umbrella group Majlis al-Shura was killed. Majlis al-Shura responded by declaring holy war against Islamic State.
Islamic State has attacked oilfields and embassies and also claimed the killing of dozens of Egyptian and Ethiopian Christians. It has also attacked both governments, neither of which control Derna. The official government has been based in the east since losing the capital Tripoli in August to rival group Libya Dawn, which set up its own administration with some Islamist links.
Meanwhile in the Libyan capital Tripoli, an armed group stormed the Tunisian consulate and kidnapped 10 staff yesterday, the Tunisian Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry did not identify the armed group, but called the assault a “blatant attack on Tunisian national sovereignty and a flagrant violation of international laws”.
Tunisia is one of only a few countries which still has a mission in Tripoli, a city which is controlled by a group that has set up its own government, a rival to Libya’s internationally recognised leaders.
Tunisian authorities last month arrested Walid Kalib, a member of that rival group, Libya Dawn. On Thursday, a Tunisian court refused to release Kalib who faces kidnapping charges in Tunisia. Libya Dawn, a loose alliance of former rebel brigades and Islamist-leaning groups, seized Tripoli last summer, expelling the internationally recognised government to the east.
Most countries closed their embassies during fighting.