Travelling in a convoy of 30 pick-up trucks, the militants stormed into Sabratha, a UNESCO world heritage site famed for its 3rd-century Roman treasures, after three of their men were captured by a rival militia.
David Mattingly, a professor of roman archeology at the University of Leicester who has excavated extensively in Libya to protect world heritage sites said that "Sabratha is in the top 5 per cent of archaeological sites in the world. As with Palmyra, it is a Graeco-Roman site, which Islamic State has a particular view on: representation of human form in sculpture and artworks, representatives of idols. Things they prefer to destroy."
Sabratha, a Phoenician trading post dating from the 5th century BC was later Romanised and rebuilt in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. It was designated by UNESCO as a world heritage site in 1982 and boasts several Christian and early Islamic structures.
The Islamic State group has blown up UNESCO sites in Syria`s Palmyra and Iraq`s Nimrud as well as executing archaeologists who dared go against the group by hiding treasures the group claims depict "false idols."
"Roman ruins in Libyan town of Sabratha"
While the militants later dismantled checkpoints which they set around the town after retrieving their men, the black-clad militants who easily overpowered the city`s residents are reported to still have a significant presence in the town and have moved training camps into the city`s suburbs.
"There was no resistance. No one wanted to provoke them, so they set up their checkpoints and drove about town showing off their weapons," one resident was quoted by Libya Channel.
"Most of the fighters seemed to be from Tunisia. They wanted to show who really controls the town," he said, adding that "the camps have moved so close to the city center now we hear them training at night."
Sabratha is considered a bastion for extremists in lawless Libya, which has become a magnet for radical militants who receive weapons training in jihadist camps before launching deadly attacks in other countries.
Libya descended into chaos after the October 2011 ouster and killing of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with two governments vying for power and armed groups battling to control its vast energy resources.
There are an estimated 3,000 fighters already believed to be in the war-torn north African country with at least 1500 currently based in Sirte, a strategic port city on the Mediterranean 650 kilometers southeast of Italy`s Sicily.
A militia alliance including Islamists overran Tripoli in August 2014, establishing a rival government and parliament that forced the internationally recognized administration to flee to the country`s remote east.
