Benghazi - Fatima Saadawy
Libyan authorities provided the Algerian government with a list of names of Algerian terrorists , as some of them were arrested by the Libyan authorities, while others were killed. According to sources, Head of Libyan Presidential Council Fayiz Al Sarraj gave the list of names to the Algerian officials during his recent visit to Algeria.
The source added that the list contained over 20 names of terrorists, adding that the Libyan official called the Algerian government to allow him deports those terrorists directly to Algerian to take the punitive actions against them as soon as possible.
In the same context, the source added that the Libyan authorities managed to arrest over 550 terrorists in the Libyan territories, as they have been distributed to a number of Libyan prisons. It added that there were over 50 terrorists among the arrested terrorists.
Two soldiers have died in fighting in Benghazi’s Sabri district as the Libyan National Army (LNA) moves its forces forward from Suq Al-Hout finally taken from militants on Friday.
On Friday and Saturday, Sabri was subjected to a series of airstrikes. LNA commanders have used fixed camera and regular drone flights to monitor militant activity and pinpoint likely strongpoints.
An LNA source said a week ago that the Eid feast was not going to interfere with military operations. Last Eid, thinly-manned LNA positions to the south of Ganfouda were breached by militants in an humiliating dawn breakout through what one LNA commander had boasted was a ring of steel.
Officially the LNA says the current fighting is intense but its relatively low frontline casualties suggest that militant resistance is weakening. Deaths and injuries from IEDs in areas recently overrun appear as frequent as from enemy fire, including deadly snipers.
There are indeed large quantities of unexploded ordinance and undiscovered booby traps in areas wrested from the militants. On Saturday the LNA repeated its warning to civilians not to try and return to their residences until they were told they had been cleared by military engineers. The problem for those impatient to get home is that de-mining teams are spread thinly and priority is being given to areas in the frontline.
On the political side, Egypt called on the UN Security Council and its relevant committees to document repeated violations by some countries, particularly Qatar, of the sanctions imposed on Libya. Egypt accused Qatar of arming and financing terrorist groups and organizations in Libya.
This came during an open meeting held Tuesday, with the participation of all UN member states at the United Nations headquarters in New York, on the challenges of combating terrorism in Libya. The session was held upon an Egyptian initiative and chaired by Ambassador Amr Aboul Atta, Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations.
Ambassador Tareq al-Qunni, assistant secretary of state for Arab affairs, called on Egypt to lift the arms embargo imposed on the Libyan National Army, which undermines the ability of the Libyan army to fight terrorism.
The Libyan delegation stressed in its statement that instability in Libya provides an environment for the incubation of terrorist groups and that the international community must undertake a number of measures, including providing weapons to Libyan official bodies to combat terrorism.
The representative of Qatar meanwhile cited reports that denied his country’s involvement in backing terrorist groups in Libya.
He referred to Egypt’s accusations as mere allegations as part of a media smear campaign as well as the “illegal” siege imposed against Qatar, saying that the Egyptian delegation used the meeting to offend Qatar.
The Egyptian delegation circulated a list of Qatari violations in Libya, according to reports from UN expert teams, stressing that Qatar is the main financier of terrorism in Libya.