Islamic State fighters head south in Libya, threatening Sahel

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DAKAR, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Groups of Islamic State fighters are quitting their bases in Libya fearing Western air strikes and heading south, posing a new threat to countries in Africa's Sahel region including Niger and Chad, officials and intelligence sources said.

The ultra-hardline movement that has seized large areas of Syria and neighbouring Iraq has also amassed thousands of fighters along a coastal strip in Libya, where it has taken the city of Sirte and attacked oil infrastructure.

African and Western governments fear that the vast, lawless Sahel band to the south will become its next target, and say any large regional presence could be used as a springboard for wider attacks.

"ISIS (Islamic State) are moving towards southern Libya to avoid the likely air strikes from the European coalition," said Colonel Mahamane Laminou Sani, director of documentation and military intelligence for Niger's armed forces.

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1. Saudi special forces metastasize again.

And.will continue because their funding base has never been severed since the mid '70s when the Kingdom's paramilitaries were first set up with the Safari Club agreement with CIA Director Bush and Prince al Turki head of Saudi external intelligence.