Dec 7, 2017

Human Rights Watch on Thursday denounced a series of attacks against shrines of the mystical Sufi branch of Sunni Islam in Libya by "extremist" militias.

"Sufi religious sites are under assault in Libya," the New York-based rights watchdog said after two attacks in the capital Tripoli over the past two months.

It said unidentified assailants torched the Zawiyat Sheikha Radiya, a historic Sufi mosque in Tripoli, heavily damaging it on November 28, on the eve of a feast marking the birthday of Prophet Mohammed.

Another attack on October 20 destroyed the Sidi Abu Gharara mosque, also in Tripoli, said HRW.

The report comes after suspected Islamic State group jihadists killed more than 300 people at a Sufi mosque in Egypt's restive North Sinai la