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IS retreats into Sirte centre, reported cut off
Tripoli, 11 June 2016:An IS counterattack on Sirte port which the terrorists lost to Bunyan Marsous forces last night, was beaten off at noon today. IS are now encircled in the town though it is unclear if the cordon of Misratan-led forces is so tight that no IS people could slip away. Along with the fall of the port, which is to the east of Sirte, a suburb nearby was also taken. The terrorists also lost a base in which Al Jazeera reported Nigerian Boko Haram fighters had been staying. A local commander, Mohamed Al Hassan warned the network, as he stood in front of IS banners outside the camp gate, that IS had been weakened but they were not yet beaten. In the course of the day warplanes from Misrata carried out six bombing raids on IS positions in the centre of the town. Artillery salvoes were also unleashed. The main target appears to be the Ouagadougou centre which has been used by IS as their main headquarters. One symbolic location to the west of the town that has been overrun by Misratan forces was the Jafran roundabout in the centre of which IS used to hang out the orange jump-suited corpses of their murdered victims. Photos taken by advancing fighters of the grim framework on which the dead were tied in a cruciform position were posted today on social media. A later report said the framework had been torn down. The key terrorist tactic that had challenged the Bunyan Marsous advance has been a combination of vehicle bombs and booby traps. An SVBIED (Suicide Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device) was launched at attackers yesterday but sources say that the IS fighters have not left behind the expected array of devices. This may be because they were overrun before they could rig them and perhaps because they are running short of explosives and armoured vehicles on which to launch them toward their attackers. Posted by: badanov 2016-06-12 |
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