In this 2014 file photo, smoke rises during clashes between the Libyan military and Islamic militias in Benghazi, Libya.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants have slit the throats of five journalists working for a Libyan TV station in the eastern part of the country, an army commander said on Monday.

The reporters had been missing since August, when they left the eastern city Tobruk after covering the inauguration of the country’s elected parliament to travel to Benghazi. Their route took them through Derna, a militant Islamist hotspot.

Faraj al-Barassi, a district army commander in eastern Libya, said militants loyal to ISIS were responsible for the killing of the journalists, whose bodies were found outside the eastern city of al-Bayda.

“Five bodies with slit throats were found today in the Green Mountain forests,” Barrasi told Reuters, referring to a sparsely populated area east of Benghazi. He did not say when the five journalists were believed to have been killed.

The reporters – four Libyans and one Egyptian – had been working for Barqa TV, an eastern television supporting federalism for eastern Libya, other journalists said.

Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), a group promoting press freedom, said the reporters had been kidnapped at an ISIS checkpoint and were killed “recently”.

“We are deeply shocked by this brutal slaughter,” said IFJ president Jim Boumelha. “ISIS (Islamic State) aims to horrify but we can only feel great sorrow and further resolve to see the killers held responsible for their crimes.”

Militants loyal to Islamic State have exploited a security vacuum in Libya, where two governments and parliaments allied to host of armed groups are fighting each other on several fronts four years after the ousting of Muammar Qaddafi.

The internationally recognized government has been based in the east since losing control of the capital Tripoli in August to a rival faction, which has set up its own administration.

The House of Representatives, Libya’s elected parliament, has also been based in the east since its inauguration in August.

ISIS, the group which has seized parts of Syria and Iraq, has claimed responsibility for the killing of 30 Ethiopian and 21 Egyptian Christians as well as an attack on a Tripoli hotel, embassies and oilfields.

[wpResize]

Related articles across the web

• Islamic State kills five journalists working for Libyan TV station-army official
• ISIS Demons Slit The Throats Of Five Kidnapped Journalists Working For Libyan TV Station
• Islamic State Kills Five Journalists Working for Libyan TV Station
• Islamic State kills five journalists working for Libyan TV station-army official
• Islamic State kills five journalists working for Libyan TV station: Army official
• GOP spokesman: Benghazi report may slip into 2016
• Islamic State kills five journalists working for Libyan TV station-army official
• Zakaria: How ISIS shook the world
• Islamic State claims suicide bombing in Libya's Benghazi
• GOP spokesman: Benghazi report may be held until 2016