Tripoli: Following are key events during the turbulent years since Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi was captured and killed in late 2011.
The country suffered its worst attack since then on Thursday, with more than 50 people killed at a police school in Zliten, east of Tripoli.
-- 2011--
- October 23: The former rebel National Transitional Council declares Libya's "total liberation" and says more than 30,000 people were killed in the conflict. Three days earlier, Kadhafi was killed in his hometown of Sirte, capping a nine-month uprising by NATO-backed rebels.
-- 2012--
- July 7: Libyans vote for the first time to elect a national assembly, named the General National Congress (GNC).
- September 11: US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans are killed in an attack on their consulate in Libya's second city Benghazi blamed on Al-Qaeda sympathisers.
-- 2013--
- Late July: Libyan oil exports plunge after protesting guards force the closure of shipping terminals. It takes a year for authorities to regain full control.
-- 2014 --
- May 16: Forces loyal to rogue general Khalifa Haftar attack predominantly-Islamist fighters in Benghazi.
- June 25: A new parliament is elected to replace the GNC, with nationalists overtaking Islamist-backed groups.
- July: Benghazi falls into militia hands.
- August: A coalition of Islamist-led militias under the Fajr Libya umbrella seizes control of Tripoli after weeks of clashes. Fajr Libya calls on the GNC to resume work, leaving the country with two parliaments.
The elected house, which has international recognition, takes refuge in the eastern city of Tobruk near the border with Egypt.
-November 19: The US says it is "concerned" by reports that extremists tied to the IS are disrupting eastern Libya.
-- 2015 --
- January 27: IS claims an attack on Tripoli's Corinthia Hotel, known for hosting foreign diplomats and Libyan officials. Five foreigners are among nine people killed.
- February 15: IS releases a video showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians, all but one of them Egyptians, captured in Libya. In April, IS claims to have executed 28 Ethiopian Christians.
- February 20: IS claims responsibility for three car bombings in Al-Qoba that kill 44 people to avenge Egyptian air strikes.
- June 9: IS claims to have seized full control of Sirte from Fajr Libya. In December, the UN estimates there are between 2,000 and 3,000 IS fighters in Libya.
- November 13: The US says it has carried out its first air strike against IS in Libya, killing top leader Abu Nabil.
- December 17: Under UN guidance, envoys from both sides of the Libyan divide and a number of independent political figures agree to form a unity government.
-- 2016 --
- January 4: The IS launches an offensive to seize oil terminals in Ras Lanouf and Al-Sidra, which lie in an "oil crescent" along the northern coast.
- January 7: A suicide truck bomb at a police school in Zliten, east of Tripoli, kills more than 50 people, the worst attack since the 2011 revolution. A second attack that is claimed by IS kills six people at a checkpoint in Ras Lanouf.
AFP
