A Libyan court sentenced 17 former members of the Islamic State group to death, a statement from the country’s Tripoli-based top prosecutor said on Monday.

The death sentences were given out to those convicted of participating in the killing of 53 people in the western city of Sabratha and the destruction of public property, according to the statement. Another 16 militants were given prison sentences, two of them for life.

The court did not specify when the sentences would be carried out.

Libya remains split between two rival administrations after years of civil war. The divide between authorities in the capital of Tripoli and eastern Libya has led to widespread lawlessness.

Militia groups have also accumulated vast wealth and power from kidnappings and their control over the country’s human trafficking operation, Associated Press reported.

As per the report, the extremist group expanded their reach in Libya after the 2011 uprising that toppled and later killed longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi. IS militants first seized Darna in 2014 and then later Sirte and areas surrounding the city of Sabratha.

However, unlike Syria and Iraq, IS was unable to profit from chaos and take large swathes of Libya. Instead, the group was limited to only administrative pockets spread across the oil-rich North African country, unable to gain supremacy over Libya’s numerous well-armed militia forces tightly bound by tribal loyalties.

Several IS training camps were located outside Sabratha. In early 2016, some 700 of its fighters, most of whom were Tunisian, were based in the area. 

Sirte’s central Martyrs’ Square was transformed by IS into a stage for public extrajudicial killings, including beheadings by a sword.

IS was driven from its main stronghold, the coastal city of Sirte, in late 2016 and fled inland. However, the militants maintain a limited presence in small regions of the country including the areas surrounding Sabratha.

In February 2016, the United States carried out an airstrike on an IS training camp near Sabratha, killing at least 40 people, as part of its effort to eradicate the Islamic State.

Image courtesy: Representative image/AP