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| Africa North |
| BRSC spokesman Mohamed Bakr arrested in Misrata |
| 2017-09-03 |
| Sources in Misrata have confirmed the arrest of the Benghazi Revolutionaries’ Shura Council (BRSC) spokesman, Mohamed Bakr, known as The Bee (Al-Nahla). He is being interrogated by the city’s counter crime agency, they said. The BRSC and its offshoot the Benghazi Defence Brigades, which consists of mainly BRSC members who had managed to flee Libya’s second city and regroup in Tripoli, had previously been allied to Misratan forces and were operating out of Jufra airbase. However, in June, following the Brak Al-Shatti massacre in which the BDB was said to have ben involved, civil and military leaders in Misrata broke with it. They ordered it to disband, surrender its weapons and hand over its leader Mustafa Al-Sharksi. Prior to his arrest, Bakr was last seen in Jufra with a number of Chadian fighters said to be collaborating both with the BDB and the so-called Islamic State. Bakr’s arrest follows that in Misrata of Usama Jadhran, the Islamist brother of the man who held Libya’s petroleum exports to ransom, Ibrahim Jadhran. A member of the Ajdabiya Revolutionaries’ Shura Council which was reported to have pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State, Usama was arrested at Misrata airport last month while trying to catch a flight to Istanbul. He is said to have subsequently admitted working with the BDB and other militant groups operating in Libya. According to the sources in Misrata, a number of other BRSC and BDB members have also been arrested and are being interrogated. Meanwhile, there are widespread but unconfirmed reports that Ibrahim Jadhran is now with Sharksi and the BDB in Jufra. |
| Posted by:Fred |