|
LNA pays a high price in the last stage of the Battle for Benghazi
[LibyaHerald] At least 18 Libyan National Army (LNA) soldiers were killed today as the fight to conclude the Battle of Benghazi went into its third day. It was the heaviest confirmed LNA corpse count within a twenty-four hour period for some weeks.Saiqa Special Forces ...Libya's elite army unit, insofar as they have one, formed from a mixture of paratroopers and commandos. The group emerged from a militia with the same name in 2010. It now numbers a few thousand and reports to the Ministry of Defence. It deployed in Benghazi in an attempt to control the carnage. As a result, it has been attacked and several of its officers murdered. The force is popular in Benghazi for its stance against Ansar al-Sharia group... published a list of the names of the dead, but it is unclear if this included the shooting of a part-time member of the LNA in an area which is now supposed to have been cleared of bad boys. Abdullah al-Arabi, a 23 year-old player with the al-Nasr football club, was shot by a sniper in Suq al-Hout. It is not known if the gunman was apprehended. The mopping-up operation in Sidi Akribesh is clearly taking longer and proving more costly than LNA commanders expected. Cornered snuffies appear to be fighting ferociously. It is understood that a woman given safe passage out of the fighting shot and maimed two soldiers who were welcoming her. She was in turn shot and taken to hospital. Two other snuffies were reportedly captured trying to escape. The LNA is claiming that during their advance they killed another leader of the terrorist group 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... , Nasser al-Tarshani, also known as Abu Khaled al-Madani, who came from Sebha. Troops found ten rotting bodies in a school in Sabri, which have not yet been identified. Also today two young men died and a third lost a leg in a boobytrap blast when apparently entering their Sabri home. However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... another Sabri resident returned to his property to find his dusty car still decorated for the wedding three years ago that was due to be held on the very day the snuffies moved in. The unnamed individual and his family fled but he was later married elsewhere in the city. Benghazinos took to the beaches today in a festive mood but five kilometres away they could hear the sound of artillery fire and see plumes of black smoke rising from the last corner of the battle. Posted by: trailing wife 2017-07-09 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=492184 |