Isil's execution of 21 Egyptian Christians on Libya's Mediterranean shore is intended as a clear message to Europe: the group is expanding its geographical spread, and it has the West in its sights.
The slow creep of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) through Libya has gone largely unnoticed, but it is here, in a divided nation spiralling further into chaos, that the Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's men are now finding find fertile ground.
The jihadist group - one of several now operating in Libya - gained a foothold in the port city Derna in back October, after a senior Isil official travelled to eastern Libya to unite a panoply of militant factions under a single banner.
The Isil leader has since recognised the Libyan "provinces" of Barqa in the east, Tripolitania in the west, and Fezzan in the desert south as belonging to his self-styled "caliphate." » | Louisa Loveluck | Monday, February 16, 2015
