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Monday, June 20, 2016
Just when the world thought Libya might be getting a bit of a handle on its severe security issues, a new militia crops up and new clashes begin. A militia made up of fighters who fled Benghazi clashed with soldiers linked to the Libyan National Army (LNA) of Khalifa Hafter near the area of the Man Made River project.
The militants who fled Bengahzi tried to seize the industrial zone in Ajdabiya but were forced to retreat by Hafter’s troops. The militia, known as the “Defend Benghazi Brigades”, is led by Islamist Ziyad Belam. The brigade is seen as an attempt to revive the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shoura Council which has been all-but defeated by the LNA.
In a Reuters report the spokesperson of LNA’s Ajdabiya operations room, Akram Bu Haligha, said a convoy of 40 armed vehicles headed to Ajdabiya from the south. “The 101 brigade of the LNA were involved in a clash against the enemies forces at the area of the Man Made River project,” he said.
The head of the central region Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG), Ibrahim Jadhran , has been accused by the LNA of helping the militia enter Ajdabiya.
Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) condemned the fighting on June 19 as the clashes continued on into a second day. At least three people were killed and 10 wounded, military spokesman Haliqa said.
The fighting, close to three oil terminals and north of major oil fields, risks opening a new front in the conflict between forces that in the past have supported the competing governments set up in 2014 in Tripoli and Benghazi.
Since March, the GNA has been seeking to replace the rival parliaments and governments and integrate armed groups, including forces loyal to Haftar, into national security forces. General Hafter, who has been heading up troops in the eastern area of Libya, has been battling Islamist militias for a number of years. He and his troops have not joined up with the troops of the Government of National Accord (GNA) as yet because Hafter believes that it is “unthinkable” to do so before the militias have been disbanded.
“Secondly, on this unified command center, I would like to stress that Mr Seraj (Fayaz Seraj, the head of the GNA) relies on militia and we refuse them. An army cannot unify with militias so they must be dismantled. It’s unthinkable to work with these armed factions,” Hafter said in May in a televised interview.
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