Ливийская исламистская вооружённая группа: история, связи и санкции.

Sanctioned by the UN 1267 Committee. Listed at the Foreign Terrorist Organizations, the group has denied ever being affiliated with al Qaeda, stating that it refused to join the global Islamic front Osama bin Laden declared against the west in 1998.

LIFG was founded in 1995 by Libyans who had fought against Soviet forces in Afghanistan. It aims to establish an Islamic state in Libya and views the Gaddafi regime as oppressive, and anti Muslim, according to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. The groups first armed action came in Benghazi on September 6 7, 1995, resulting in the deaths of some 30 individuals. LIFG claimed responsibility for a failed assassination attempt against Gaddafi in February 1996, which was in part funded by MI6 according to David Shayler, and engaged Libyan security forces in armed clashes during the mid to late 1990s. They continue to target Libyan interests and may engage in sporadic clashes with Libyan security forces. Adnkronos International reported that the group was founded in Afghanistan by Abu Laith Al Libi and other veterans of Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The Telegraph reported that senior Al Qaeda members Abu Yahya al Libi and Abu Laith al Libi were LIFG members. In an audio message published in November 2007 Ayman al Zawahiri and Abu Laith al Libi claimed that the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group had joined al Qaeda. In November 2007 Noman Benotman, described as the "ex head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group", published on open letter to al Qaeda. According to The Times:

On 10 July 2009, The Telegraph reported that some member organisations of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group had split with Al Qaeda.

On 10 October 2005, the United Kingdom's Home Office banned LIFG and fourteen other militant groups from operating in the UK. Under the United Kingdom's Terrorism Act 2000, being a member of a LIFG is punishable with a 10 year prison term. The Financial Sanctions Unit of the Bank of England acting on behalf of HM Treasury issued the orders to freeze all their assets. Mohammed Benhammedi lived and worked in Liverpool at the time of the UN sanction against him. Sergey Zakurko, the father to his Lithuanian mistress was suspended from his job at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) for fear that the link could pose a security threat. The group was delisted from the United Kingdom proscribed organizations list in November 2019.

On 7 February 2006 the UN embargoed five specific LIFG members and four corporations, all of whom had continued to operate in England until at least October 2005. Those nine are in the following table; the accusations are according to the US State Department. Abd Al Rahman Al Faqih عبد الرحمن الفقيه Possibly the same person as the jihadist writer Abdul Rahman Hasan. Wanted in Morocco in connection with the mass murders of 16 May 2003 in Casablanca. Al Faqih was convicted in 2006 of possessing documents related to terrorism. Ghuma Abd'rabbah غومه عبد الرباح Trustee of the Sanabel terrorist charity, by which he transferred money and travel documents to terrorists abroad. Abdulbaqi Mohammed Khaled عبد الباقي محمد خالد Trustee of the Sanabel terrorist charity; GIA affiliate. Mohammed Benhammedi محمد بن حامدي Financier of LIFG. Tahir Nasuf طاهر ناصف Previously of the Libyan GIA circle in the UK. He denied any relation with the LIFG. Sara Properties Limited Source of some of Benhammedi's money. Meadowbrook Investments Limited Source of some of Benhammedi's money. Ozlam Properties Limited Source of some of Benhammedi's money. Sanabel Relief Agency Limited Alias SARA, a charity front by which LIFG transacted with other al Qaeda components (including GICM) via its office in Kabul, prior to the fall of the Taliban. Al Faqih, Nasuf, and a third man appealed being listed. Their appeal went all the way to the European Union's Court, which ordered the UK to delist the men, and return their passports. The "Summary of Evidence" from Mohammed Fenaitel Mohamed Al Daihani's Combatant Status Review Tribunal states: "The Sanabal Charitable Committee is considered a fund raising front for the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group." In June 2011, all of the entities included in the table above were de listed by the United Nations Security Council Committee.

In September 2009 a new "code" for jihad, a 417 page religious document entitled "Corrective Studies", was published after more than two years of intense and secret talks between incarcerated leaders of the LIFG and Libyan security officials. On 9 April 2008, Al Jazeera reported that Libya released at least over 90 members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. The Italian press agency Adnkronos International reported the release was due to the efforts of Saif al Islam Gaddafi, a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and leader of the charity Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations. It reported that a third of the LIFG members Libya was holding were released. A further 200 prisoners were released in March 2010, including group leader Abdelhakim Belhadj. In January 2011 members of the group threatened a return to violence unless still imprisoned members were released.

In March 2011, members of the LIFG in Ajdabiya declared to the press that the group supports the revolt against Gaddafi's rule, and had placed themselves under the leadership of the National Transitional Council. They also stated that the group had changed its name to Libyan Islamic Movement (al Harakat al Islamiya al Libiya), had around 500–600 militants released from jail in recent years, and denied any past or present affiliation with Al Qaeda. A leader of the LIFG, Abdelhakim Belhadj, became the commander of the Tripoli Military Council after the rebels took over Tripoli during the 2011 Battle of Tripoli. In March 2011, Abdel Hakim al Hasidi, a leading member of the group, admit to the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore that his fighters had al Qaeda links. Al Hasidi was captured in 2002 in Peshwar, Pakistan, later handed over to the US, and then held in Libya before being released in 2008. He admit in the same interview that he had earlier fought against "the foreign invasion" of Afghanistan.