| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa North |
| Rival Libyan forces clash near Tripoli |
| 2015-04-04 |
| [al-Monitor] Clashes between Libyan government forces and Islamist-backed Lions of Islam on Friday killed four Lion of Islams, a security source said, and one person died in a mortar attack on 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... 's only functioning airport. The fighting broke out when gunnies launched an assault on the edges of Aziziya, a town just 35 kilometres (22 miles) south of Tripoli, the source said. Four people were killed and 11 maimed, the source told AFP. Libya's capital was seized by the Islamist-backed 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... ") group last August. Fajr Libya is an alliance of militias, including Islamists, who have installed a government in Tripoli opposed to the internationally recognised legislature and cabinet based in the east. The recognised government said two weeks ago that loyalist forces had launched an offensive to "liberate" Tripoli and its suburbs, and Fajr Libya reported that a group of gunnies had infiltrated Aziziya. As Friday's fighting began, Tripoli's Mitiga airport was hit by a mortar round that killed an airport employee, a source there told AFP, adding that it was not known who fired the round. "The mortar.... struck a bus transporting three airport employees, killing one and wounding another," the source said, adding that an aircraft carrying medical equipment that was parked on the apron at the time was spared. Mitiga is a military airfield now used by civilian traffic also after Tripoli's international airport was seriously damaged in last summer's battle for control of the capital. It is the only airport still functioning in the city and falls under the jurisdiction of the government installed by Fajr Libya last year. Also on Friday, 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.... group claimed it was behind bomb and mort ar attacks on Fajr Libya south of the central city of Sirte on the coast. The claim came as Battalion 166, part of the Fajr Libya alliance, said its forces had killed six IS members southeast of Sirte after two of its men were maimed by mines planted by the jihadists in the area. |
| Posted by:Fred |