A new Islamic group said late on Saturday that its troops are being sent to the strategic town of Derna in eastern Libya to restore peace and impose sharia Islamic law there.

The organization called itself "Muslim youth council of Shurah", saying they are "forming a legitimate committee to broker peace deal and dismiss feuds amongst people, and arrange reconciliation based on Allah's law the Sharia." Witnesses said the group staged a massive military show in Derna on Friday.

Derna is considered as one of the key jihadist strongholds in Libya. The Libyan interim government announced war on terrorism earlier in March, just two days after the attack on military barracks in Benghazi left more than nine people dead and about twenty wounded.

This is the first declaration of its kind since the topple of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The city of Benghazi has since witnessed a wave of assassinations on a daily basis against military and police figures.