Inside an ISIS bomb making factory in Libya

Discarded gas canisters are strewn across the floor while metal bolts that were once due to be used in suicide vests - this is the deserted power station allegedly used as an ISIS bomb making factory in Libya.

 

Troops battling jihadis in the north African country raided the Al-Khaleej power plant near Sirte during a furious anti-ISIS offensive in June - and discovered it was home to a makeshift explosives factory for extremists.

Inside the vast hangar on the edge on the Libyan desert, government forces found the components of suicide vests - similar to the one used to injure 12 people in the ISIS attack on the German town of Ansbach nine days ago.

Following fierce clashes near the disused power station, Libyan forces found the corpses of 25 jihadis inside - but said at least 160 had been living there.

On the floor of one room, piles of thick hair and tufts of beard trimmings lay strewn among discarded ammunitions boxes and seven litre bottles of water.

Libyan commander Ahmed Negro told MailOnline: 'There were big numbers of Daesh here - at least 160.

'We think most of them went to Sirte, but some of them may be posing as ordinary citizens, because they shaved off their beards and cut their long hair before they ran away.'  

 We think most of them went to Sirte, but some of them may be posing as ordinary citizens, because they shaved off their beards and cut their long hair before they ran away. 

Commander Negro

'We think the water was blessed by having the Holy Koran recited over it, and then used in making IEDs,' explained a solider named Hamed.

MailOnline gained exclusive access to the power station on Libya's central Mediterranean coast after it was freed by Libyan forces battling against ISIS in June.

Retreating militants left the grounds laced with mines and IED booby-traps, meaning access was restricted for two months until the area had been made safe. 

One of the perimeter walls was still stained with blood, where the commander of a bomb disposal unit had been killed.

'He successfully dismantled one mine but he didn't realise it was attached to another, directly underneath, which exploded when he tried to move the first, deactivated mine,' explained Commander Negro.

In the living quarters, prayer times were scrawled on walls and a kitchen cleaning rota instructed ISIS adherents to keep the kitchen clean, reminding them that Allah sees everything.

Some text from the Hadith - an important Islamic text recording the sayings of the Prophet Mohamed - listing seven ways to reach paradise was taped to a door.

When they were not preparing explosives, ISIS members appear to have spent their time covering walls and doors with graffiti glorifying ISIS ideologies. 

'ISIS follows the path of the Prophet,' read one, while another said: 'We will never give up. We will apply Sharia Law.'

'ISIS forever,' was spray-painted on the exterior of one building. Beside a smashed window was written 'Sirte: the mother of all battles,' indicating that the terror group had long been preparing to defend Muammar Qaddafi's former hometown, which they made their North African stronghold for more than a year. 

ISIS follows the path of the Prophet. We will never give up. We will apply Sharia Law.'

Graffiti left behind on the bomb-making factory walls

A crude illustration of a suicide bomb car was labelled 'Dogma' - the name Libya's branch of ISIS gives to these terrifying weapons, many of which were prepared in the very grounds of the power station.

ISIS had transformed an industrial hangar into a workshop for fashioning lethal explosive-filled car-bombs to be used by their many adherents willing to undertake suicide missions. 

Outside the hangar stood an abandoned water-tanker lorry, which militants were customising into a lethal suicide vehicle before they were forced to flee from the power station by advancing Libyan forces.

Libyan soldiers inspecting the vehicle said the truck would have been packed with explosives via a large hatch, set into its roof. The finished bomb - innocently appearing to be an ordinary water tanker - would have probably targeted a military checkpoint with a huge blast. 

A similar truck was detonated at a police academy in January this year, killing 60 police and wounding several hundred.

In the last three months, ISIS has carried out over 40 car bomb attacks on Libyan military positions and field hospitals, in an attempt to stop advancing government forces. 

At the beginning of Libya's three-month battle to eliminate ISIS from the region, militants drove bullet-proofed vehicles and lorries at speed towards targets.

But recently the terror group has changed tactics, employing white Toyota land cruisers, popular in Libya, or ordinary civilian cars with explosives hidden beneath bedding and mattresses, to avoid detection.

Roughly-cut sheets of the bullet-proof metal lay abandoned amongst oxyacetylene gas canisters, used for cutting through thick metal, and assorted scrap offcuts and empty gas bottles which soldiers said were packed into vehicles with explosives to create lethal blasts that would send shrapnel flying.

Source:dailymail.co.uk