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UNSMIL condemns Hafter's Operation Doom against IS in Benghazi
[Libya Herald] The United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
 Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), headed by Bernardino Leon, has "strongly" condemned the military escalation in Benghazi launched yesterday by the head of the Libyan armed forces Khalifa Hafter.

"The timing of Arclight airstrikes clearly aims at undermining the on-going efforts to end the conflict," it said in a statement issued from Skhirat, Morocco, where the UN-brokered Libya Dialogue negotiations are taking place.

Hafter yesterday unveiled his latest bid, Operation Doom (Hatif), to rid Benghazi of Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 (IS) fighters and other krazed killers. It is supposed to be a coordinated ground and air strategy to deal with them once and all and targeted primarily in the city's Leithi, Gwarsha and Sabri districts.

"A military solution is not a viable option in Libya", UNSMIL said, noting that already too many civilians had been killed or maimed, more than 100,000 displaced and areas reduced to rubble in the battle for Benghazi. The latest air offensive would merely add to residents' suffering, it added.

"Whether in Benghazi or elsewhere in the country, armed hostilities have shown time and again that they can only bring destruction and suffering for the Libyan people."

The Arclight airstrikes, it claimed, were "a clear attempt to undermine and derail the on-going efforts to end the conflict at a time when the negotiations have entered a final and most critical stage."

Demanding for an immediate ceasefire in the city, UNSMIL also called on key figures who support the Dialogue to use their influence to de-escalate the military situation.

There was no mention in the statement, however, of the actions of IS, Ansar al-Sharia
...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libyaand Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet...
 or the other krazed killer groups who brought violence to Benghazi and tried to take it over by force.

There has been no condemnation either from UNSMIL of Thursday's attack on the General National Congress which was specifically aimed at undermining the Dialogue process.

In a separate joint statement, ambassadors and diplomats from a number of countries present at Skhirat also condemned the rise in hostilities in Libya, including that they said were "air strikes against civilian population in Benghazi".

Posted by: Fred 2015-09-21
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=430171