LIBYA

Pro-Islamic State militants seize university – Residents

Militants claiming loyalty to Islamic State have seized the university in the central Libyan city of Sirte, residents said, days after a video showed them staging a convoy parade, reports Reuters.

Islamist militants have made inroads into parts of the North African oil-producing country, exploiting a power vacuum created by a violent struggle for control between two competing governments. In mid-February Egyptian planes struck suspected Islamic State targets in eastern Libya, after the group released a video showing the execution of 21 Egyptian Christians kidnapped in Sirte. Egypt and the official Libyan government had asked the United Nations Security Council to lift an arms embargo and help build up the army to tackle the jihadists.

"The group took control of the university [on 18 February]," a Sirte resident said, asking not to be named. A picture posted on social media showed an Islamic State flag at the university's entrance.
Full report on the Reuters site