Mass grave discovered in Libya’s Sirte

The Libyan Red Crescent announced on Tuesday that it had found a mass grave in Al-Daheir, west of the coastal city of Sirte, containing decomposed bodies of around 100 people.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the organisation said that the number of remains in the graves may increase. No details were given regarding who the bodies belonged to, however they are believed to be of members of Daesh.

On 5 December 2016, Daesh fighters lost control of the city of Sirte which they had taken over on 28 May 2015.

Daesh steadily imposed control on Sirte in 2015, and used the city as a base to launch attacks on oilfields and ports as well as to target checkpoints in nearby Misrata.

Since Gaddafi’s fall in a war in 2011, Libya has slipped steadily in the fractional fighting among brigades of former rebels who first battled the strongman and then turned against each another, allowing Daesh to profit from the security vacuum.

Read: Is the UN envoy about to give up on Libya?