“ISIS has managed to find some of the secret underground storage facilities, still holding chemical weapons, hidden in the desert. Unfortunately, they weren’t properly guarded,” said Ahmed Gaddafi Al-Dam, a cousin of Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader who was killed in 2011.
Al-Dam, the stolen gas was then trafficked to the northern part of the country and sold.
“There are two known cases of this chemical agent being stolen. I know this from my sources in Tripoli. In the first case, seven drums of sarin were stolen, and in the second, I think it was five.”
And the destructive chemicals have already been used, said Ahmed Gaddafi Al-Dam, who formerly was one of Gaddafi’s most trusted security chiefs. He recalled that during the recent clashes near the Al-Quds Mosque in Tripoli, security forces discovered a vehicle loaded with sarin.
Earlier this month, Eren Erdem, a member of Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), told RT that IS terrorists in Syria had received all the necessary materials to produce deadly sarin gas via Turkey.
“There are many terrorists among them, between 10 and 50 in every thousand,” he told the Mail Online.
“They are going all throughout Europe [sic]. Within one year, two years, you will have another September 11.”
The former security chief made the remarks in Cairo on Monday, during an interview with the newspaper. He has reportedly since fled.
Following his comments, Britain’s Home Secretary Theresa May said Britons continue to face the risk of a terror attack. She added everyone in the UK needs to play their part to help fight the spread of radicalization.
IS gaining ground in Libya
Considered alarmist by some, Gaddafi al-Dam’s warning will likely alarm Western governments.
Following the brutal massacre of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians by IS militants in Sirte, northern Libya, concern is mounting that instability in the region poses a risk to the West.
Militants linked to IS have made gains in Libya in recent times, and are thought to have conquered three towns, including Sirte.
Gadaffi’s cousin says the Islamic State in Libya could be in possession of over 6,000 barrels of uranium, previously guarded by the state’s armed forces.
“They are not stupid anymore. They know how to make money. They will try and sell it,” he added.
Last month, Britain’s ex-director of MI6 Sir John Sawers called for a debate about UK military intervention in Libya.
Sawers said the country has descended into “growing chaos” after Britain joined US airstrikes to bring down Gaddafi’s regime.
However, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has rejected calls for military intervention, insisting a political solution must be found to Libya’s struggle against the Islamic State.
Hammond stresses efforts to install a national unity government will help Libya in its struggle against terror groups.
A state of unrest
Libya has remained restless since the demise of its autocratic ruler in 2011. After the uprising, sharp political divisions surfaced in the country, yielding two opposing governments each of which runs its own institutions and armed forces.
The separate parliaments, located in the eastern city of Tobruk and Libya’s capital Tripoli, currently vie for supremacy.
Since Libya’s 2011 uprising, accompanied by NATO airstrikes, critics argue the state has been abandoned by the West and left without any foreign assistance to foster stability.
There has been no attempt to manage a transition to a new system of rule, as Western allies did in the case of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Following the release of a video depicting the brutal beheading of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya earlier this year, the Egyptian government launched airstrikes against IS targets in the region.
Libya has also appealed to the UN Security Council to lift its arm embargo, in a bid to counter threats from the Islamic State and other militants.
Colonel Gadaffi’s family has remained largely out of the media spotlight since the Libyan dictator’s death during the state’s 2011 revolution. Gadaffi’s passing marked the end of his 42-year reign as state leader.
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