Islamic State expansion in Libya - A timeline

Islamic State group, targeted by a US air strike in Libya on Friday, moved into the country in 2014 in the chaos that followed the ouster of Dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

IS has become yet another player in the lawless North African nation, where rival governments and militias are battling for control of territory and major oil reserves.

2014

November 19: The US State Department says it is "concerned" by reports that radical extremists with avowed ties to IS are destabilising eastern Libya, having already seized vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.

News reports say the eastern coastal city of Derna is emerging as an IS stronghold.

December 27: A car bomb claimed by IS explodes outside the diplomatic security building in Tripoli without causing casualties.

2015

January 8: IS claims to have killed two Tunisian journalists Sofiene Chourabi and Nadhir Ktari who went missing in September.

January 27: IS claims an attack on Tripoli's luxury Corinthia Hotel that kills nine people.

February 15: IS releases video showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians, all but one Egyptians that the jihadists say they filmed in January. Egypt carries out air strikes on IS in Derna.

February 20: IS claims suicide car bombings in Al-Qoba, near Derna, that kill 44. It says the attacks are to avenge losses in the air strikes.

April 19: A new video shows the execution of 28 Christians originally from Ethiopia.

June 9: IS announces it has captured Sirte, east of Tripoli. It already controlled the city's airport.

July 12: The group acknowledges it has been pushed out of Derna after several weeks of fierce fighting with members of the town's Mujahedeen Council.

August 11: Heavy fighting erupts in Sirte between residents and IS, with dozens of people dead.

November 13: The US bombs IS leaders in Libya for the first time and says it killed Abu Nabil, an Iraqi also known as Wissam Najm Abd Zayd al-Zubaydi. Libyan officials identify him as the head of IS in Derna.

December 4: France says it carried out reconnaissance flights over Libya in November, notably at Sirte, and plans others.

2016

January 4: IS launches an offensive to seize oil terminals in Ras Lanuf and Al-Sidra, which lie in an "oil crescent" along the coast.

January 7: A suicide truck bombing at a police school in Zliten, east of Tripoli, kills more than 50 people, the worst attack since the 2011 revolution. A second attack kills six at a checkpoint in Ras Lanuf. Both are claimed by the IS.

February 19: A US air strike on a jihadist training camp near Sabratha, west of Tripoli, kills 41 people, probably including a senior IS operative behind attacks in Tunisia.