![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635956557159878091-2507635jpg.jpg\")
Gen. David Rodriguez, commander, U.S. Africa Command, addresses the press on April 7, 2016, at the Pentagon.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo Credit: Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Tim D. Godbee\/DoD<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Rodriguez said, however, that it will be a challenge for the Islamic State to become as big a threat as it is in Iraq and Syria because of resistance from local Libyan fighters and the population, which is wary of outside groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the militias in\u00a0Libya\u00a0have fought Islamic State militants in Benghazi and Derna with some success, and fought hard in Sabratha with more limited gains. Efforts to battle the group in Sirte have not worked as well, he said. Their biggest problem, he said, is that often the militias fight among themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n “It’s uneven and it’s not consistent across the board,” Rodriguez told reporters at a Pentagon briefing. “We’ll have to see how the situation develops, but they are contesting the growth of ISIS in several areas across Libya, not all of it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked if waiting for the new government to form will allow the Islamic State more time to gather momentum, Rodriguez downplayed the risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It’s going to be a challenge for them to get to that point because of the Libyan population, people and militias that are out there,” he said. “It could be a bigger fight and everything. But again, we’re watching that very carefully and taking action as we see those threats develop.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The number of Islamic State militants in Libya has doubled in the last year or so to as many as 6,000 fighters, with aspirations to conduct attacks against the U.S. and other nations in the West, the top U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":92526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[15,88],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1281],"class_list":["post-90887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-military"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"T7DHV52NS5AC3B5XIVEGP7ERUA","arc_canonical_url":"\/2016\/04\/08\/islamic-state-grows-in-libya-but-local-militias-fight-back\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n