Libya

The corpses of 17 migrants were brought ashore in Sicily aboard an Italian naval vessel on May 31 along with 454 survivors as efforts intensified to rescue people fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. 

A pre-dawn suicide attack in northwest Libya May 31 claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) killed five members of the Fajr Libya militia alliance that controls the capital, a militia spokesman said.

Libya's Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) affiliate took control of a civilian air base in the central city of Sirte, a militia spokesman and an ISIL statement said, in the latest gains by the extremist group exploiting Libya's lingering chaos.

Europe must do more to help migrants crossing the Mediterranean, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday ahead of a visit to Brussels, as a planned EU naval operation awaits UN Security Council approval.

The European Union is set to back plans on May 18 for an ambitious naval force to fight people smugglers in the Mediterranean after a series of shipwrecks that killed hundreds of migrants.

Libya's official government has banned Bangladeshi workers from entering the country because many were trying to travel on illegally by boat to Europe, a government spokesman said on May 16.

A Turkish cargo ship, which was attacked by the Libyan military off the Libya coast on May 10, was en route to the port in Tobruk with proven documents and carrying declared cargo, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç has said, dismissing allegations that the vessel had been carrying weapons and approaching the city of Derna in Libya. 

The second captain of a Turkish cargo ship, which was attacked off Libya on May 10, has said Libyan authorities had only "warned us with a bomb" during the attack.

ANSA sent shivers through southern Europe on Tuesday with a report that Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists will be ferried into Italy “in the coming weeks” concealed amongst illegal migrants loaded aboard various smugglers’ vessels.
The Italian news agency quotes Omar al Gawari, the information minister in Libya’s Tobruk government.

Turkey has called for a speedy political settlement to the Libyan problem a day after a Turkish cargo ship, "Tuna-1," was shelled off the Libyan coast and attacked from the air, killing one and wounding several others.