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| Africa North |
| Libya loyalist forces battle ISIL in Benghazi |
| 2015-09-01 |
| [Hurriyet Daily News] Libyan pro-government forces on Aug. 31 battled jihadists from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in second city Benghazi, where five pro-government fighters have been killed in two days of violence, media said. Four loyalist soldiers died and 22 were maimed on Aug. 30 in festivities with ISIL in the southern district of Hawari, the pro-government LANA news agency reported. "Fierce festivities with all sorts of weapons are still ongoing Monday between the army and terrorist groups," LANA said, quoting a military source. Loyalist forces have advanced into Hawari and control much of the district, it added. The eastern city has been rocked by near-daily fighting for more than a year between pro-government forces and gangs including fighters from the radical 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... and ISIL. LANA also cited an army front man as saying that a special forces commander, Imad el-Jazwi, was killed in a mine blast on Aug. 31. Jazwi had been searching a house in the central neighbourhood of Al-Laythi when the kaboom killed him and maimed three members of his unit, the front man said. Libya descended into chaos after the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed veteran dictator Moamer Qadaffy. The North African nation has two rival parliaments and governments and several gangs vying for power and its oil wealth. |
| Posted by:Fred |