The Libyan National Army (LNA), commanded by Khalifa Haftar, announced on Sunday the arrest of a prominent member of the ISIS group in southern Libya.
Mohamed Miloud Mohamed, also known as Abu Omar, was detained during a military operation in the southern city of Ubari, announced LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari in a statement.
Abu Omar was among the top ISIS leaders in Libya when the group took control of the central coastal city of Sirte in 2015, the statement added.
The militants made Sirte a stronghold where they trained fighters and orchestrated attacks, including killing scores of foreign tourists in neighboring Tunisia, before they were driven out of the Libyan city in 2016.
Described as a “dangerous terrorist,” Abu Omar had “close ties” with Abu Moaz Al-Iraqi, the head of ISIS in Libya, who was killed last September by pro-Haftar forces, Mismari’s statement said.
Abu Omar is also accused of having abducted in 2015 four Italian engineers, who were freed after payment of a ransom estimated at four million euros ($4.8 million), it added.
After ISIS was ousted from Sirte the group was significantly weakened in Libya, but its members have retreated into the desert or blended in with the population on the Mediterranean coast.
