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Fighting continues in Sirte
Benghazi, 15 February 2017:Libyan National Army bomb disposal experts defused a car bomb in Brega tonight. It is unclear where or how the black saloon was discovered but pictures on social media show soldiers standing beside two large shells apparently taken from the vehicle. There were also reports this evening of clashes to the east of Sirte between LNA units and the Misratan 166 Brigade which is in charge of security in the town. Meanwhile the Bunyan Marsous operations room announced that Sirte had been put under an overnight curfew until further notice. The ban on all civilian movement between 8pm and 7am was being put in place said BM because of remaining IS fighters in the town. Until now it had been thought that all the terrorists had been driven out toward Bani Walid where some 90 of them perished in US air strikes in February. Meanwhile the Benghazi Defence Brigades insisted today that though they had been forced from Ras Lanuf and Sidra they were still in the vicinity of the Oil Crescent. However the LNA said that its aircraft had been striking that BDB “and its allies” in Jufra and that troops were moving south towards them. The siege of the 12 Apartments complex in Ganfouda continues. The BRSC has posted that one of its commanders Jalal Makhzum had been killed in the fighting there. Today saw a visit to the Oil Crescent by the head of the eastern National Oil Corporation established by the interim government of Abdullah Al-Thinni. Alwasat reported that Naji Al-Maghrabi had toured oil installations but did not say where. As with the rival central banks in Tripoli and Beida, the rival eastern and western NOCs had been working together. But there are fears that after the BDB assault on the Ras Lanuf and Sidra export terminals, the east may not be prepared to restore control of the Oil Crescent to Tripoli NOC, as it did when Hafter ousted Ibrahim Jadhran’s renegade Petroleum Facilities Guard last September. Posted by: badanov 2017-03-16 |
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