By Ali Salem.
![Fighters in Tripoli . . .[restrict]purportedly pledging allegiance to Daesh; Libya Dawn says it is fake (Photo: Social media)](http://www.libyaherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/DAESH-Tripoli.jpg)
Tripoli, 21 November 2014:
Libya Dawn has denied that Daesh, the terrorist group backing an Islamic Caliphate, is in Tripoli or anywhere in western Libya.
A statement issued yesterday by Libya Dawn’s media office says reports to the contrary are part of a conspiracy by certain foreign governments to justify interfering in Libya and appropriating its wealth. Libya Dawn also accused the UN Secretary General’s Representative in Libya, Bernardino Leon, and a number of countries – Saudi Arabia was specifically mentioned – of trying to destroy the Libyan revolution.
The statement follows the appearance of pictures on social media earlier this week purporting to show a group of Daesh supporters in Tripoli following the lead in Derna and pledging allegiance to the Caliphate.
At the beginning of last month, Derna’s Shoura Council of Islamic Youth pledged allegiance to Daesh and to the man claiming to be caliph, known as Abubakr Al-Baghdadi. In a separate video this week, he announced he had accepted the Derna group’s loyalty. It has since been reported that he has split Libya into three vilayets or provinces – Tripoli, Barca (or Cyrenaica) and Fezzan – and appointed a person named as Ibrahim Ben Awad as his “emir” in Tripoli.
There has also been a claim from a Twitter account claiming to belong to the Tripoli vilayet that Daesh was responsible for the car bombing of the Egyptian and UAE embassies in the capital on 13 November.
In response, Libya Dawn has said that it had received intelligence reports showing that those who claimed to support Daesh in Tripoli were agents provocateur planted by foreign countries to discredit it.
The statement, which nonetheless implies that Daesh is present in eastern Libya, is being seen as an attempt by Libya Dawn to explain away the growing issue of the extremists in the west, despite the fact that Daesh flags have reportedly been seen recently in Tripoli and Daesh supporters are said to be present at the Majr camp in Zliten and also in Sabratha.
In a similar move, Omar Al-Hassi, appointed prime minister by Libya Dawn’s allies in the rump Congress, refuses to label as terrorists Ansar Al-Sharia – a major component of the same Derna Shoura Council of Islamic Youth that pledged its allegiance to Daesh – although yesterday it was designated as such by the UN. In interviews recently, he has called it a humanitarian and a missionary organisation. [/restrict]
