ISIS Has Acquired Some of Qaddafi’s Deadly Shoulder-Held Missiles

Newsweek
By: Jonathan Broder

.

Deep in Libya’s Sahara Desert, in the sun-baked town of Sabha, a ragtag group of gunmen loyal to one of the country’s two rival militias agreed to show Timothy Michetti their most prized weapons. Michetti, an experienced investigator for a London-based company that tracks the sources of small arms in conflict zones…

As part of that strategy, ISIS has targeted Libya’s oil installations. One goal, says Patrick Skinner, a former CIA officer and now a principal at The Soufan Group, a security and intelligence consultancy, is to torpedo a power-sharing agreement between the country’s two main factions. How to split the country’s oil revenues is a contentious part of the negotiations. “If ISIS can cripple the country’s oil industry,” he says, “there’s a lot less incentive for the factions to form a government.”

Another aim is to replenish its coffers. In recent weeks, ISIS fighters took control of two strategic towns near Sirte, giving the group an unobstructed path to Libya’s oil fields in the south. As long there is no unity government, Skinner says, there is little chance the two main militias will be able to stop the ISIS advance. “They have momentum, which is one thing you never want a terrorist group to have,” he says. “They’re all in…”

.

To read the full article please click on the link below:
http://www.newsweek.com/isis-has-acquired-qaddafi-deadly-missiles-434186