PREPARATION is underway for a ‘decisive’ battle, to storm the city of Benghazi and expel the Islamist militias, by pro-US forces led by Major-General Haftar.
Colonel Muhammad Hijazi, the official spokesman for National Libyan Army in the city of Benghazi, Libya, said army forces, led by retired Major-General Khalifah Haftar, are to launch a decisive battle to storm Benghazi and expel the armed and extremist militias who are there.
Benghazi, which houses the headquarters of the state-owned oil companies, has seen rounds of fighting since last May when Major-General Haftar declared Operation Dignity, waging war on the Islamists controlling the area unchallenged.
He said the forces of the Libyan Army have succeeded over the past two days to inflict huge losses on the extremists fighters and military equipment.
His statement from his headquarters in Benghazi, said: ‘Our forces are advancing on various sectors and directions, and we have killed more than 200 of the “khawarij” – (a historical term for deviant and extremist groups from the early days of Islam). Our military campaign is continuing. We intend to launch an operation to storm Benghazi.’
Hijazi said the delay in the military settlement of the fierce confrontations between the army and the extremists was because these hardliners are entrenched in the residential areas, and the army is avoiding the bombardment of the populated areas out of concern for the safety of the civilians.
Colonel Hijazi added: ‘Our forces are still controlling the air base of Benina,’ denying the claims of Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries (which includes fighters from Ansar al-Shar’iah and a number of extremist Islamic militias allied with it), that they are are coming close to the air base.
‘We are bombarding them with artillery and aircraft, and I challenge them to declare the size of their losses.’
The spokesman for National Libyan Army in the city of Benghazi disclosed that extremist fighters from Libya Central Shield and the city of Misratah in western Libya, its third largest city, have recently arrived in Benghazi to join the ranks of the extremists. The spokesman strongly criticized Misratah and described it as a city that exports terrorism.
Colonel Muhammad Hijazi said: ‘Regrettably, the city of Misratah is defying the legitimacy of the Libyan state. The political, military, and security decision of this city has been hijacked. This is something very regrettable.’
He explained that fighters of the extremist DA’ISH (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) aided by an influx of Pakistani, Algerian, and Egyptian nationalities have recently joined these extremist groups in confrontation with the forces of the Libyan National Army.
Operation Dignity, launched last March, is continuing until terrorism, the extremists, and those whom he described as new Khawarij are wiped out. Hijazi pledged to continue the air raids to destroy the terrorists and bombard all their military positions and defeat them for good.
He said: ‘The air raids will continue, and we will intensify them on all the hijacked cities, whether in Darnah and Benghazi (east) or in Tripoli (west) or any other areas in which we think there are concentrations of terrorists or arms caches, and we will not stop bombarding them using the warplanes.’
Residents and activists in Benghazi described the situation in the city as calm and also in some suburbs which have witnessed random shelling repeatedly over the past two days, as in Al-Qawarishah.
They spoke of the concentration of forces of the Shura Council of Benghazi on three sectors around strategic Benina, which has a civil airport, the air base, and the air defence camp. In addition, it is a strategic route towards the heights of Al-Rajmah, where the forces of Major-General Haftar are deployed.
The intensity of the confrontations in the city have eased, judging by the sounds of bombardment and explosions which are no longer heard in these areas. From time to time, the air force warplanes bombard the positions of the Shura Council of the Benghazi Revolutionaries.
Major-General Haftar has forged an alliance with the Al-Sa’iqah commando forces of the army, but the Islamists managed to seize a number of the army camps in Benghazi.
The Islamic forces tried to restore control on the military and civilian airports from the government forces in the coastal city in a confrontation which is part of a broader scene of chaos which has been widespread in the country since the ousting of the government of Colonel Muammar al-Gadaffi three years ago.
Meanwhile, Colonel Sulayman Hasan, chairman of the Military Council in Al-Kufrah and commander of the joint Libyan-Sudanese forces, has denied that a Sudanese plane carrying a shipment of weapons has landed on its way to Mu’aytiqah base.
The shipment includes military and logistical supplies for the joint force from the National Army which is deploying in the two positions of Al-Sarah and Al-Uwaynat, military positions in which the National Army is deployed to protect the borders. The shipment was unloaded in front of some military officers, sheikhs, notables, and commanders of the battalions in the city of Al-Kufrah to refute any rumours in this respect.
In a separate development, the UN mission has recently announced that the fighting in the two main cities of Tripoli and Benghazi has led to the displacement of 100,000 people in Tripoli and nearly 150,000 people in Benghazi.
Foreign workers, have fled away from the oil producing country. Western countries and Libya’s neighbours fear that Libya may change into a failed state with the inability of the central government to control former fighters who, along with NATO, helped topple Colonel Gadaffi in 2011, and then they started to fight each other to seize power.
‘Libya has rejected any foreign military intervention to resolve the crisis taking place in the country, Minister Muhammad Abd-al-Aziz affirmed, in the wake of his meeting with Arab League Secretary-General Nabil al-Arabi in Cairo to discuss the developments in Libya and to prepare for the Arab ministerial meeting, scheduled for Sunday.
Abd-al-Aziz said: ‘We do not want any foreign military intervention to take place in Libya and we call for expanding the task of the UN in Libya to push forward towards stability and the building of institutions.
‘We, as Libyans, do not have the desire for any military intervention in our country.’
Meanwhile, Libyan schools in areas affected by conflict, predominately in Tripoli and Benghazi, are to remain closed until 21 September, the Ministry of Education has said.
Schools across the country officially opened on Sunday 31 August, but those in the capital and in Benghazi were forced to remain closed because of potential risk to students.
The Ministry of Education said it was working in difficult circumstances to ensure that students’ education was disrupted as little as possible. It added that it was in communication with municipal councils in the areas concerned and was working with local leaders.
In Benghazi, where schooling has been most disrupted by clashes, it was reported that that no new textbooks had arrived for the beginning of the new academic year.
The ministry said it would ensure that all schools are provided with necessary textbooks. Meanwhile, a delegation from the House of Representatives (HoR) has failed in repeated bids to broker a ceasefire between militias fighting in and around Tripoli. There have been no less than 26 separate attempts to talk to Libyan Dawn representatives, all of which have been rebuffed.
Thirteen representatives from the HoR Ceasefire Committee set up on 17 August, have been trying to negotiate the ceasefire and convince Libya Dawn militias to quit the capital.
