Saiqa special forces brigade claim to have captured three camps near Benghazi airport today. They had been held by the Benghazi Revolutionaries’ Shoura Council (BRSC), the umbrella organisation of Islamist forces including Ansar Al-Sharia which are still fighting the army for control of the city.Meanwhile air force jets were again involved in intensive strikes today, mainly in the city centre, as clashes continued between the army and the militants. At least one soldier is said to have been killed in the fighting.
The militants’ casualties are, as usual, unknown.
Over the past week, casualties were reportetdly down, with only one other soldier killed and five others wounded, mainly in clashes in Hawari, Leithi and the city centre.
According to Jalaa hospital, a man and his wife were also killed when a missile struck their home in Hadaiq district.
Of the three camps Saiqa says it captured today, two are in Sidi Faraj between Benina and Hawari, and the third at Mahashhash inside Buatni. All three originally belonged to the air force. So far nothing has been said about handing them back to it.
Yesterday, Saiqa celebrated the reopening of its training department at its camp on the city’s Airport Road, with games and a small ceremony. Saiqa was forced to abandon the camp in July last year, after a nine-day a concerted onslaught on it by the BRSC in which 63 Saiqa soldiers died. The camp was partly last November, but it took several more months to completely clear it.