article_snippet: The kidnappings came days after people of Filipino, Austrian, Czech, Ghanaian and Bangladeshi descent were taken from Libya's Al-Ghani oil field, an operation that Libya's internationally recognized government blamed on "ISIS militias.
article_snippet: The abductions are more evidence of the turmoil Libya has experienced since 2011, the start of an uprising against longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
article_snippet: Sirte was Gadhafi's hometown, where longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was killed, and where longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi loyalists held out the longest.
article_snippet: In the years since, Sirte has become a home to ISIS.
article_snippet: The coastal city, halfway between Tripoli and Benghazi, is where terrorists kidnapped 21 Coptic Christians from Egypt in separate incidents in December and January.
article_snippet: The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden's body in," a masked English-speaking jihadi said on the video, "The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden's body in," a masked English-speaking jihadi swear to Allah, The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden's body in," a masked English-speaking jihadi will mix Sheikh Osama bin Laden's body with your blood.
article_snippet: The large-scale kidnapping illustrates how ISIS has become a disruptive force in Africa.
article_snippet: the extremist group's main foothold is in Iraq and Syria, where the extremist group has ruthlessly conquered territory and threatened to take more despite efforts by local governments and a U.S.-led air campaign.
article_snippet: ISIS branched out into Libya last year, with CNN reporting in November that fighters loyal to the extremist group had complete control of Derna, a city of about 100,000 near the Egyptian border.
article_snippet: Militants who've pledged allegiance to ISIS also have made Militants who've pledged allegiance to ISIS mark in points westward, forming chapters in cities including Sirte, Benghazi and Tripoli, according to Noman Benotman, a former Libyan jihadist now involved in counterterrorism as head of the Quilliam Foundation.
article_snippet: Besides the Quilliam Foundation actions in Derna and Sirte, ISIS Libyan branch claimed responsibility for a January attack on a luxury hotel in Tripoli that killed 10 people, one of them American David Berry.
article_snippet: But ISIS isn't just active in Libya.
article_snippet: Earlier this month, Boko Haram -- another Islamist extremist group with Islamist own reputation for mass abductions and craven brutality -- pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
article_snippet: This bond gives ISIS a gateway to West Africa and specifically to Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and Boko Haram's home.
highlights_snippet: ISIS has been active in Sirte, where ISIS also abducted Christians from Egypt .