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One resident said: The local security forces dont do anything about them because they are scared to cause trouble.

Mr Barghathi, a former tank brigade commander who led the military campaign against Isil in Sirte, said he had set up a special army operations base near Beni Walid to deal with the re-emergence of the terrorist threat and that western governments were assisting him in tracking terrorist movements.

We know they are using the off-road networks south of Beni Walid and that they are mixing with the illegal immigration traders to make money, said Mr Barghathi.

Brigadier General Mohamed al-Ghasri, an army spokesman in western Libya, said that he was aware of increased co-ordination between al-Qaeda and Isil to assassinate military leaders and that they were based in the south.

Jonathan Githens-Mazer, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and professor at the University of Exeter, said terrorist groups in Libya were becoming "more fluid".

"Violent extremists are content to wear different labels as 'flags of convenience' in pursuit of their aims," he said. "As we're also seeing in other territories like Syria, and the Yemen, the old divisions between AQ and groups like Daesh are mattering less and less."

Read more:
Isil 'regrouping in southern Libya with support of al-Qaeda and preparing for further attacks' - Telegraph.co.uk