On Sunday, Libyan authorities exhumed 18 bodies of Islamic State (IS) victims buried in a mass grave in the city of Sirte, the former stronghold of the terrorist group located along the conflict-stricken North African nation’s coast.
In a statement, the Missing Persons Authority said that the bodies were unearthed in the Sabaa area of Sirte, a city in central Libya. The bodies were taken to a local hospital.
Sirte fell under the control of IS militants between 2015 and 2016. The IS militants, along with Al-Qaeda, gained a foothold in oil-rich Libya amid the chaos that engulfed the country after the 2011 uprising and a NATO intervention in the conflict.
The militants were eventually driven out of the city in December 2016 by Libyan forces, but hundreds of alleged former IS fighters remain incarcerated in Libyan prisons, many of whom are awaiting trial.
In its statement, the Missing Persons Authority said they collected samples of the bones in an effort to identify the bodies. Further details on the cause of death for those found were not provided.
Several mass graves have been uncovered across Libya recently. In October, officials said they found 42 bodies in a mass grave at a school site in Sirte.
On the 16th of November 2018, the Red Crescent in Libya found a mass grave in Derna, containing 22 bodies of soldiers shot dead in an incident dating back to 2011.
About two years later, 34 bodies of IS fighters were uncovered in a mass grave in the Al-Fataeh area in Derna. They were killed during the armed clashes that took place in the city between 2015 and 2016.
In December 2018, the bodies of more than 30 men were discovered near Sirte, believed to be the corpses of a group of Ethiopian Christians whom IS fighters executed in a video the group published years earlier.
Over the last few years, the Libyan National Army (LNA) launched massive campaigns against IS militants in southern and central Libya. LNA forces carried out a qualitative military operation, during which they targeted a number of militants and destroyed armored vehicles.
Oil-rich Libya plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gaddafi in 2011. In the chaos that followed, the county split, with the rival administrations backed by rogue militias and foreign governments. The country’s current political crisis stems from the failure to hold elections on the 24th of December 2021.
The country’s Prime Minister, Abdelhamid Al-Dbaiba who is leading a transitional government in Tripoli has refused to step down. The country’s eastern-based Parliament appointed a rival Prime Minister, Fathi Bashagha, who is seeking Libya’s United Nations (UN) seat.
