The weathered concrete of checkpoint 50 shimmered out of the endless beige desert south of Sirte, that strategic city on the coast that has become the most important Libyan stronghold of the so-called Islamic State. Abu Anas and his extended family, in a convoy of a 15 cars, pulled up to the roadblock slowly, nervously. The men, women and children, wedged uncomfortably among their worldly possessions, hold their breath. They’d survived for a year under the brutal ISIS reign by adhering to its myriad laws, and keeping out of trouble. Most of their neighbors left the city months ago, amid a fresh wave of executions and dwindling supplies.
Now forces loyal to the country’s nascent unity government were advancing into the jihadi stronghold from three sides, bringing with them war and destruction. The family decided to leave before it was too late. “Where are you going? Why are you leaving Sirte?” barked a masked ISIS fighter peering into the window of the first car in the convoy. Behind him, in the blistering heat, 10 militants clutching assault rifles guarded the concrete structure. It’s one of three identical gateways east, west and south of the city, built by toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi to glorify his beloved hometown. The jihadist didn’t bother listening to the reply. “Stay and defend yourselves, your city,” he ordered, waving the convoy away and sending it back to town. No car would pass there.
It’s been weeks now that residents of the mid-coastal city have been barred from leaving by the insurgents, who are panicking as their North African caliphate is being chipped away. Forces loyal to the United Nations-backed unity government in Tripoli have entered the city from the west and are closing in from the east and the south. Without civilians to use as shields, the militants know the town will become a free-fire zone. If Sirte can be taken from ISIS, the impact on migrant smuggling—which ISIS has made an industry—could be profound, and Europe would find itself at least a little bit safer. But for now, the main concern of innocent people in Sirte is survival. Abu Anas and his family got out, finally, by taking the dangerous cross-country desert smuggling routes, which wind through Libya’s vast empty quarter. Days later, from the safety of Tripoli, he told us his story.
According to Ahmed, another resident who is still inside, the insurgents have even sent back people in urgent need of medical care that is not available in the embattled city, “We’re staying put—all the roads are closed,” he told The Daily Beast via messages, as the mobile network was down. “We don’t know what ISIS is doing exactly, but they are fortifying the town. We’re all just waiting for the war to come.” As Abu Anas recalled, much the same thing had happened in the last days of the Libyan tyrant Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The people of Sirte were ordered to stay put. “Five years on and it’s happening all over again,” said Abu Anas. Sirte was the final battle in the NATO-backed uprising, and the scene of Gaddafi’s dramatic death in what had been a hopeful revolution. But by last year it had become a perfect target of ISIS domination. More than 2000 fighters are thought to be based in the city no. Foreign insurgents, mostly from Tunisia and Sub-Saharan Africa, account for more than 85 percent of the group, according to Sirte Member of Parliament Ziad Hadia. The country, strangled by fighting between fiefdoms of ex-rebels, has collapsed amid civil war.
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