| Katiba al-Bittar al-Libi | |
|---|---|
| كتيبة البيطار الليبية | |
| Leaders | Abdelhamid Abaaoud †[1] Abu Dujana Al-Libi † |
| Dates of operation | 2012-Present |
| Group | Islamic Youth Shura Council |
| Headquarters | Derna,Libya(2014-2016) |
| Active regions | Syria,Iraq, andLibya |
| Ideology | Islamism |
| Size | 350-1400 |
| Part of |  Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant(Since 2014) |
| Allies |  Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia Green BattalionIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant(Joined in June 2014) Al-Nusra Front(Until 2014) |
| Opponents |  Syria Iraq Libya EU HezbollahFree Syrian ArmyAuthenticity and Development Front Islamic FrontAl-Nusra Front(Since 2014) |
| Battles and wars | Syrian Civil War
Libyan Civil War (2014–present) International military intervention against ISIL |
Katiba al-Bittar al-Libi is an armed Islamist group operating inIraq,Syria andLibya. The group is composed largely of Libyan fighters who entered Syria in the wake of theArab Spring and earlypost-civil uprising stage of the Syrian Civil War. Though the group is composed largely of Libyans, the group also has large amounts ofTunisians andFrancophoneMaghrebis from Europe, reportedly the perpetrators of theNovember 2015 Paris attacks andManchester Arena bombing, includingAbdelhamid Abaaoud, who was suspected to be a leader of the group, were members of the group or affiliated with it, the group also pioneered theInghimasi tactic used in the attack, and its fighters have largely employed the tactic on the battlefield.[3] The group maintained close ties to Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia through networks in Libya and has established multiple training camps across Libya and has recruited Tunisians to these camps, which were located aroundSirte andTripoli. During beginning of theinfighting between ISIL and its former allies such asJabhat al-Nusra andAhrar al-Sham fighters from Katiba al-Bittar took part in open fighting against ISIL's opponents inMarkada andAtarib, in the process losing several fighters.
In June 2014 afterAbu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared that ISIL had restored theCaliphate inMosul, the group pledged allegiance to ISIL.[4]
In 2014, the group reportedly sent a delegation fromal-Raqqah to Libya and established the Islamic Youth Shura Council in the city of Derna, which would later go on to become ISIL'sCyrenaica Province.