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| Africa North |
| Libya Islamists Launch New Assault on Benghazi Airport |
| 2014-09-18 |
| [AnNahar] Islamist fighters launched another offensive Wednesday on the airport in Libya's Benghazi, the final redoubt in the eastern city of an ex-general who has been waging war on them, an AFP correspondent said. The fighters of the Shura Revolutionary Council, which includes the Islamist 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... group, have been trying since early September to capture the facility, which houses both civilian and military airfields. Oil-rich Libya slid into chaos after Muammar Qadaffy ...a proud Arab institution for 42 years, now among the dear departed, though not the dearest... was toppled in a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... -backed uprising three years ago, with interim authorities confronting powerful militias that fought to oust the veteran dictator. On Wednesday, the AFP correspondent in Benghazi said heavy artillery fire could be heard since dawn in the southern suburb of Benina, where the airport is located. Nine soldiers from a special forces unit loyal to renegade former general Khalifa Haftar ... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... have been killed and another 30 maimed in the fighting over the past three days, according to one of their commanders. In May, Haftar launched a campaign to wipe out Islamists in Libya. There has been almost daily fighting between his forces and the militias, which now control nearly all of Benghazi, Libya's second city and the cradle of the 2011 uprising. Meanwhile, ...back at the buffalo wallow, Standing Buffalo drew a bead on his old enemy and squeezed the trigger... a senior militia commander and former MP has been killed in fighting with rival militias west of the capital Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... , one of his comrades and a medical source said. Mohammed al-Kilani was slain while commanding elements of the Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn ...aka Fajr Libya, the Islamist operation launched to counter that of General Khalifa Haftar (Operation Dignity). It is made up of the Libya Shield militia (Misrata and Moslem Brotherhood), Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room (Moslem Brotherhood), and Tripoli Brigade (close to Abdul Hakim Belhaj, head of Al-Watan party). Financing and moral support come from Turkey and Qatar... ) alliance in festivities Tuesday with fighters accused of being loyal to Qadaffy in the suburb of Warshefana, said the leader of the allied Shield Brigade. Another source, from Kilani's hometown of Zawiyah, said he had been killed in an ambush along with three companions as they were returning to Tripoli. A hospital source in Zawiyah confirmed receiving Kilani's body, along with three others. Kilani had served in the previous parliament as a member of the Wafa bloc, accused by its rivals of backing radical Islamists in Libya. Fajr Libya rejects the legitimacy of the new parliament, elected in June, and of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani, who moved to the far eastern town of Tobruk in August for security reasons. Its fighters, a powerful presence in the capital, called the same month for the reinstatement of the outgoing General National Congress. The assembly tasked pro-Islamist Omar al-Hassi to form a parallel government, which is not recognized by the international community. |
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