The rise of fighters’ anger

21.06

The left side of Ramadan As-Sadaoui’s head is blue. He took a bullet from an Islamic State (IS) sniper. It entered his left cheek and it is still inside his head. He can barely talk. For the moment he does not need to. His four companions in the same ward in Misrata Central Hospital, all injured fighters like him, tell the same story of what they call IS’ “dirty war”.

Baha Al-Mahrog is a member of Fursan Janzour brigade. He was injured on 16 June by a suicide car bomb in Zaafran roundabout, the west entrance of Sirte. “I have fragments in my right pelvis,” he says. “The doctors told me it’s serious. I haven’t had surgery yet because the doctors fear I’ve an infection.” Baha Al-Mahrog cannot recall much about what happened. He just remembers a truck driving fast from trees to the sand block which protects the fighters at around 2 am that day. “The previous night, a car came the same way but we managed to stop it,” he told the Libya Herald.

Like many of his brothers in arms, Baha al-Mahrog fought during the battle of Sirte in 2011 against Qaddafi’s forces. “This war is far more difficult because IS uses dirty methods like suicide car bombs or snipers, and they will fight until they die.”

Since the beginning of Bunyan Marsous operation, not counting today’s massive toll, 170 fighters have been killed and more than 700 injured.

“In war, the worst are head injuries and amputation cases which are exactly the kind of injuries caused by snipers and suicide car attacks”, said Said al-Mihishi, who is both a doctor and a fighter.

Misrata Central Hospital would not allow journalists to take photos partly because of the horrific injuries of the wounded but also because of the poor conditions it is having to operate under.

“We have a shortage of everything – anesthetic drugs, antibiotics, and much more,” Dr Mohamed Al-Ajnaf said.

“We suffer as well from a lack of nurses. We have one nurse for 30 patients in the surgery unit”.

Sixty percent of the nurses, mainly from Philippines, had left Libya, he noted. A programme has been launched among the students to enroll 60 of them as nurses.

The hospital itself is too small to treat all the patients. A lobby has been closed off to provide more bed space. Only the emergency building is open because the other buildings are unfinished; the construction company left in 2011.

Abdelaziz Issa, the spokesperson of the hospital, prefers to focus on the good points. “Serraj’s government promised us LD 3 million. So far we’ve had LD 1 million and we’ve received two containers of supplies out of three provided by the [National] Salvation Government [of Khalifa Ghwell]. Both authorities want to show they’re helping in the fight against IS. We take everything.”

In the field hospital, 13 kilometres west of Sirte, the working conditions are worse. “We have 12 doctors but most of them are actually student doctors. We lost a lot of equipment [including a fully-equipped truck for surgeries] when IS bombed the field hospital’s previous location on 12 June,” Dr Mustafa Shkorfo expained. Worse, there were not enough medical supplies to prevent haemorrhaging which meant that most of the fighters developed infections in the field hospital while waiting to be taken to Misrata.

Complaints from fighters about the situation are growing.

“My brother needs treatment abroad but instead he has been waiting in this room for a week. No one helps us,” complains Omar, Ramadan As-Sadaoui’s brother.

Angry fighters went last week to a local hotel where the municipal council was meeting meet to ask for more help. The tension was reportedly very high.

“This war has nothing to do with the revolution in 2011. The fighters now are more scared because IS will stay until they die. They don’t care,” said Abdullah Sliman, another of the wounded in the same ward as Ramadan As-Sadoui. He then adds: “For myself, I will go back and fight. I am not scared. »

Ghwell declares support for Ajdabiya attackers

21.06

By Ajnadin Mustafa

Backing for the “Benghazi Defence Brigades” and its attack last Saturday on Ajdabiya has come from the so-called Government of National Salvation led by Khalifa Ghwell.

This third would-be government continues to meet in Tripoli and issue directives despite the presence in the city of the internationally-recognised Presidency Council and its Government of National Accord. However, not only has it been consistently ignored by the international community since the outset, it is now ignored by most of the militias that once backed it.

In its statement, it claimed that the BDB was a valid body and part of the Libyan army. Its aim was to free Ajdabiya and Benghazi from followers of the former Qaddafi regime – a reference to General Khaifa Hafter and the Libyan National Army. It described him as a criminal, accusing him of responsibility for “dozens of murders” in Benghazi, of being behind the wave of assassinations that took place there in 2012 and 2013 in order to destabilise the city, of running secret prisons in the city, and of being allied to the so-called Islamic State.

It also denounced the Presidency Council’s statement which had condemned the BDB as terrorists, saying that that in any event the Presidency was in a state of collapse but would be held responsible for the deteriorating situation in the country.

Support for the BDB has also come from Ghwell’s ally, Sadik Ghariani, as well as from two Islamist members of the Presidency, Mohammed Al-Ammari and Abdussalam Kajman.

https://www.libyaherald.com/2016/06/21/ghwell-declares-support-for-ajdabiya-attackers/

Ghariani gives his blessing to Ajdabiya attack as two PC also indicate support1

19.06

By Ajnadin Mustafa

Sadik Ghariani, still viewed by many in western Libya as the country’s grand mufti, has given his blessing to yesterday’s attempted attack in Ajdabiya by exiled Benghazi militants.

Speaking on his Tanasah TV station, the controversial cleric called on all revolutionaries able to do so to go east and join the fight.

In a related development suggesting that they too supported the attack, the two Islamist members of the Presidency Council, Mohammed Al-Ammari and Abdussalam Kajman, have disassociated themselves from the Council’s statement published yesterday condemning it.

In his own three-page declaration, Ammari said he had not been consulted about the Presidency Council statement. He criticised the description of the attackers as terrorists.

The latter were members of the Benghazi Defence Brigades led by Ziyad Belam, the former head of the Omar Mukhtar Brigade in Benghazi and widely considered an extremist.  The attackers have also been labelled as terrorists by the GNA’s defence minister, Mahdi Al-Barghathi.

Separately, Abdussalam Kajman is also reported to be angry about the statement, complaining that there have been others recently issued in the name of the Presidency without the approval by all members.

Yesterday, he issued his own one-man statement condemning the bombing of civilians in Derna.

He is now said to be planning his own statement on the Ajdabiya attack.

To add to the divisions, boycotting Presidency Council member Ali Gatrani has also issued a statement about Ajdabiya.  He blamed the council, accusing it of supporting the attack.

The declaration by Ghariani has come as little surprise. Widely detested and ridiculed by the general public, especially in Tripoli, he had already on numerous occasions said that the real fight in Libya ws against Hafter and his Libyan National Army and that fight against the so-called Islamic State was of lesser importance

Those by Ammari and Kajman are seen as more serious, as they indicate a major and unbridgeable fault line over security within the Presidency between pragmatists and Islamists.

https://www.libyaherald.com/2016/06/19/ghariani-gives-his-blessing-to-ajdabiya-attack-as-two-pc-also-indicate-support/

PC condemns Ajdabiya attack, HoR declares military zone from Tobruk to Ben Jawed

19.06

By Moutaz Mathi

Responding to yesterday’s attack on the industrial zone in Ajdabiya by militants from the “Benghazi Defence Brigades”, the Presidency Council in Tripoli has condemned it while the House of Representatives (HoR) in Tobruk has declared a state of emergency, putting the entire area from Tobruk to Ben Jawad under military control.

In a statement last night, the Presidency Council strongly condemned the incident, describing those who attacked the Man Made river project in Ajdabiya as a “ terrorist militia” intent of destroying the project. It also stated that the group were remnants of the so-called Islamic State and other extremists who had variously fled Benghazi, Sirte and Ajdabiya after being defeated.

Subsequently interviewed by Libya’s Channel TV station, the defence minister in the Presidency Council’s Government of National Accord, Mahdi Al-Barghathi, reinforced this, but stating in this case that the attackers were remnants of Ansar al-Sharia. They were terrorists, he said, and would be opposed. His ministry, he added, would provide support to any military units that fought terrorism providing they rallied around the GNA.

Meanwhile, the president of the HoR, Ageela Saleh, has declared a state of emergency and created a military zone from Tobruk to Ben Jawad – vitually all north Cyrenaica. He has appointed Abdul Razzaq Al-Nazhuri as military governor.

Nazhuri is officially Chief of Staff for the HoR, but with Khalifa Khafter over him as the HoR’s general commander of the Libyan armed forces, his position is limited. Making him military governor, effectively of Cyrenaica, appears to give him a more hand-on role.

Stretching the military zone to Ben Jawad, just some 50 kilometres east of the Wadi Al-Ahmar (the “Red Valley” and the border with Tripolitania), has the potential of provoking a fight with the Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG) of Ibrahim Jadhran. This may be intentional.

The PFG are the main body of troops under the Ajdabiya-Sirte operations room set up by the Presidency Council and Ben Jawad is now firmly under PFG control having been liberated by it from IS at the beginning of the month.

The LNA yesterday accused Jadhran of helping the Benghazi Defence Brigades to enter Ajdabiya, although there is no evidence to that effect.  Jadhran’s forces appear to have kept aside from the fighting.

https://www.libyaherald.com/2016/06/19/pc-condemns-ajdabiya-attack-hor-declares-military-zone-from-tobruk-to-ben-jawed/

Benghazi miltants attack in Ajdabiya but forced by LNA to retreat: report

18.06

A new militia made of of militants who fled Bengahzi in recent months tried to seize the industrial zone in Ajdabiya today but were forced to retreat by units linked to the Libyan National Army (LNA) of Khalifa Hafter.

The militia, known as the “Defend Benghazi Brigades”, is led by Islamist Ziyad Belam backed by Ismail Salabi, and is an attempt to reconstitute the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shoura Council which has been all-but defeated by the LNA.

According to the spokesperson of LNA’s Ajdabiya operations room, Akram Bu Haligha, a convoy of 40 armed vehicles headed to Ajdabiya two days ago 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.

He accused the head of the central region Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG) Ibrahim Jadhran of helping the militia enter Ajdabiya.

He added: “Even if we accepted that the Presidency Council is legitimate, this group has violated its [the Presidency Council’s] decision establishing a military operations room from Ajdabiya to Sirte and it prohibited all sides undertaking operations against others.”

Three weeks ago, the Presidency Council set up the Ajdabiya-Sirte oeprations room under the command of Colonel Yousef Rajeb Ageela, although most of the forces consist of PFG men. In an order aimed specifically at the LNA, the Council also insisted no miltary grouping other than forces under its command should undertake any activities in the area.

Since then the operations room has recaptured Ben Jawad, Nufliya and Harawa from the so-called Islamic State.

The accusation that Jadhran helped Ziyad Belam attack Ajdabiya is unlikely. Jadhran supports the Presidency Council and the Government of National Accord and yesterday had talks in Ras Lanuf with its defence minister, Mahdi Barghathi, accompanying him also to Nufliya and Ben Jawad. For his part, Barghathi who has spent much of the past two years fighting the BRSC and otehr militants in Benghazi has said that the “Defend Benghazi Brigades” are extremists and will be opposed.

It seems inconceivable that he would be making plans with Jadhran if the latter were at the very same time aiding and abetting the militants.

The new force does have the support, however, the Tripoli-based grand mufti Sadik Al-Ghariani and is allegedly backed by some businessmen from Misrata.

Ziyad Balam was head of the Omar Mukhtar Brigade in Bengahzi but was seriously wounded in an assassination bid there in October 2014. He was then flown to Turkey for treatment. After he returned to Misrata, he went to Tripoli and has never been back to Benghazi. He has reportedly been active in the eastern part of Jufrah distict, from where, it is suggested, he launched the abortive operation against Ajdabiya.

https://www.libyaherald.com/2016/06/18/benghazi-miltants-attack-in-ajdabiya-but-forced-by-lna-to-retreat-report/

Fierce clashes, blast kill 60 in a day in Libya

22.06

Fierce clashes in Libya between pro-government militiamen and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the city of Sirte and an explosion at a depot near the capital, Tripoli, left more than 60 dead in just one day, a spokesman and a Libyan state news agency reported Wednesday.

In Sirte, the last bastion of ISIS in the North African country, Tuesday's clashes killed 36 militiamen aligned with the newly-UN brokered government. The militias, mainly from the western town of Misrata, have been leading an offensive since early May to take full control over Sirte.

At first, the militiamen rapidly advanced into the city but the push got bogged down in recent days amid a series of suicide bombings by ISIS. Along with the 36 militiamen killed, mostly in direct gun battles with ISIS militants, Misrata hospital spokesman Abdel-Aziz Essa also said that about 140 were wounded in Tuesday's battles.

ISIS fighters reportedly have hunkered down atthe militant group's headquarters in Sirte, the sprawling Ouagadougou convention center that was built by late dictator Muammar Qaddafi. Sirte was also Qaddafi's birthplace and the city he fled to during the 2011 civil war, when Libyan rebels backed by NATO bombings forced him out of the capital, Tripoli.

Meanwhile, the state LANA news agency said an explosion at a depot on Tuesday in the town of Garabuli, near Tripoli, followed clashes with militias and killed 29 civilians.

According to a statement on the Facebook page of the Qarabouli municipal council, the clashes took place between militiamen in charge of the town security and armed local protesters. When the protesters stormed the militia's barracks, the depot exploded, the statement said. It said that the depot housed firecrackers, not ammunition.

Photographs posted on the page showed charred bodies covered in plastic sheets.

The U.N. envoy to Libya, Martin Kobler, said on his Twitter account he was "shocked and saddened by reported violence and lives lost in Garabuli tonight."

The high death toll illustrates the violence that has roiled Libya since Qaddafi's ouster and death in the 2011 uprising against his rule that turned into a civil war. Over the past years, rival militias and governments have torn the country apart while ISIS-linked militants gained strength, setting up a base in Sirte, along Libya's central Mediterranean coast. As Libya slid into chaos, hundreds of thousands of mostly African migrants flooded the country's coastline, attempting to cross to Europe.

Meanwhile, on a third front, inside the war-raged eastern city of Benghazi, army forces and local fighters have been battling Islamic extremists the past two years. The army is under the command of controversial commander Khalifa Hifter, who answers to the internationally-recognized parliament seated in eastern Libya.

Foreign military advisers have been working with different factions in Libya.

On Tuesday, the Marine Corps general Lt. Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser who is nominated to lead U.S. forces in Africa said the United States has a small number of troops on the ground in Libya but that no more are needed "at the moment."

Waldhauser testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, saying the Americans are in advisory roles in Libya while acknowledging that he isn't aware of an "overall grand strategy" for Libya. The U.S. previously has conducted airstrikes in Libya, targeting ISIS fighters and leaders.

For its part, the European Union on Monday boosted the role of its naval operation in the Mediterranean to counter the increasing numbers of desperate migrants trying to reach Europe.

EU foreign ministers agreed at talks in Luxembourg to extend their operation in Libya by another year and tasked it with building up Libya's coast guard and navy. The operation will also help to police a U.N. arms embargo off the Libya coast.

Rights groups have warned that working with Libyan militias could come with a high cost, citing grave violations by militias acting on behalf of ruling authorities against the migrants.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fierce-clashes-blast-kill-60-in-a-day-libya/

Caos Libia, analisti: la guerra delle tribù per la ricchezza

22.06

I piccoli Stati dei clan, forze politiche nazionali non contano

Capire cosa succede nella Libia di oggi è una impresa ardua: un Paese con tre governi e due parlamenti oltre ad una miriade di milizie armate che rispondono a logiche che sfuggono persino agli addetti ai lavori. A questi bisogna ovviamente aggiungere i jihadisti dello Stato Islamico (Isis). Per districarsi nel caos in cui è sprofondato il Paese dopo la caduta del regime di Muammar Gheddafi nel 2011, il quotidiano arabo "Assafir" si è affidato ad analisti politici e militari libici i quali hanno un'idea precisa sui chi manovra i fili del groviglio libico: tutto sarebbe nelle mani delle grandi tribù, in feroce lotta tra loro per accaparrarsi ricchezza, potere ed armi. 

L'articolo del giornale esordisce con le parole pronunciate da un influente capo tribù la scorsa settimana: "La tribù di al 'Magarbah' ha preso il Petrolio (Ministero), mentre quella di 'Obeidat' controlla il Parlamento e quella di 'al Bra'asah' che si è accaparrata la guida del governo (Consiglio Presidenza di al Sarraj). Nonostante ciò, ci sono alcuni che ritengono sia troppo per noi di 'al Awaqir' (tribù dello sceicco) avere preso il ministero della Difesa". Con una frase, "il notabile spiega che i veri antagonisti sono le grandi tribù in lotta tra loro: non fazioni politiche opposte, nè estremisti avversi a moderati e neppure islamisti contro laici. Questi ultimi hanno tutti un ruolo marginale che non incide sugli avvenimenti", spiega Salah al Bakkoush un noto analista e blogger di Bengasi. 

Ma ecco alcuni esempi di questa feroce lotta non dichiarata, raccontata oltre che da al Bakkoush anche dal generale Yussuf al Manqush, ex capo di Stato maggiore che ha scelto di vivere a Istanbul dopo aver lasciato l'incarico nel 2013 per "incapacità di ricostruire l'esercito a causa di pressioni di centri di potera nati dopo la caduta di Gheddafi". 

NOMINA AMBASCIATORE IN CAIRO 

la capitale egiziana è stata teatro di un braccio di ferro tra due grandi tribù: Al Bra'asah e al Dorsah, che entrambi volevano un proprio esponente per la carica di ambasciatore. Alla fine il governo di Tobruk ha accontentato enrambi nominando Tareq Saqif dei Bra'asah a ambasciatore presso il governo e Mohammed Saleh dei Dorsah a rappresentante alla Lega araba. Cosa abbia convinto Tobruk a venire incontro alle richieste dei due clan è spiegato dal giornale: una tribù ha fatto irruzione nella sede del ministero degli esteri ad al Baida prendendo come ostaggio il vice ministro Hassan al Sagir; l'altra ha mandato propri emissari che "hanno aggredito con calci e pugni il ministro degli Esteri Mohammed al Daraia". 

LE GUERRE TRIBALI NEL SUD COME A OVEST E EST 

Molti vedono il conflitto libico come uno scontro tra La Cirenaica ad est e la Tripolitania a ovest tralasciando il Sud ed anche i conflitti interni tra tribù dell'ovest come tra quelle ad est. 

Nel sud è in corso una guerra tra i Tuareg e le tribù dei Tebu per il controllo del fiorente contrabbando con i Paesi al confine meridionale: Ciad, Niger, Mali, Algeria e Sudan. Solo lo scorso aprile è stata siglata una pace grazie alla mediazione della comunità di San Egidio. 

A ovest, invece, è in corso un duro conflitto tra Misurata e al Zintan, due città che grazie ad alleanze tessute dalle loro grandi tribù hanno formato due potenti armate. Per usare le parole di al Bakkoush, i primi, oggi, leali al governo di unità nazionale rappresentano "la civiltà del litorale mentre i secondi sono i paladini dei beduini del Sahara". 

Non è immune di rivalità e guerre neanche la parte orientale del Paese: da una parte la grande tribù dei Al Awaqir dall'altra un'alleanza di clan della zona di Brega unitisi a gruppi che fanno capo al generale Haftar. 

Lo stesso Haftar, per sottomettere la tribù di al Zuwayya diffusa nella parte sud-orientale della Libia, avrebbe stretto un'alleanza con "Giustizia e Uguaglianza", principale fazione dei ribelli del Darfur nel Sudan e con le tribù meridionali dei Tebu. 

EST SPEZZETTATO IN MICRO COMUNI GOVERNATI DA TRIBU': 

"La Cirenaica in via di disintegrazione", scrive Assafir che parla di una diffusa tendenza delle tribù locali a farsi piccoli feudi governati in assoluta autonomia. E per comprendere la portata del fenomeno l'analista del giornale cita l'esempio di Jardas al Abid: una zona a sud di al Baida trasformata in un comune per volontà dell'omonima tribù locale. La decisione ha spinto le vicine tribù dei Bra'asah a pretendere ed ottenere la creazione di ben 24 micro comuni autonomi abitati complessivamente da soli 15mila persone. 

"NON ESISTE UN ESERCITO DI MILITARI" 

"Nella Libia di oggi non esiste un esercito, quello attuale (di Haftar, ndr) è composto da un manipolo di uomini di cui i militari di professione sono il 20%". Così il colonnello Faraj al Barasi, comandante della zona militare al Jabal al Akhdar. Concetto confermato da Yussuf al Manqush: "Chi parla di Esercito Nazionale Libico - dice - diffonde solo una grande bugia per la semplice regione che Gheddafi ha distrutto l'esercito svuotandolo da ogni significato". 

MISFATTI DEL LAICO HAFTAR CHE USA MILIZIE SALAFITE 

Per gli analisti di Assafir, uno dei principali artefici del caos è il generale "laico" Haftar accusato di definirsi alfiere della lotta ai jihadisti, ma tra i gruppi armati che lo sostengono svettano milizie salafite come "Katibat al Tawheed" ("Brigate del Monoteismo") o falange islamiste come i "Proconsoli del Sangue". "l'esercito guidato da Haftar non è composto da militari, in gran parte sono volontari, mercenari e gente laureatasi nelle galere", sostiene l'ex capo di Stato maggiore. 

ASSEMBLEA TRIBALE ACCUSA: SQAUDRONI MORTE DI HAFTAR 

Il giornale dopo aver definito Haftar, personaggio che "vuole replicare Gheddafi" che "ricorre alla violenza per zittire gli avversari", ricorda una riunione tenuta lo scorso 14 giugno dalla Suprema Assemblea delle Tribù al Awaqir. All'incontro hanno preso parte tre esponenti della tribù: Faraj Aqim, comandante delle forze speciali dell'antiterrorismo a Bengasi; Saleh Bulgheib, capo dell'intelligence militare; e al Mehdi al Bargheshti, ministro della Difesa del governo di unità nazionale. Una registrazione audio trapelata sui social media rivela come i tre esaminando i "gravi fatti avvenuti a Bengasi negli ultimi tre anni", accusano Haftar di aver formato uno squadrone della Morte guidato dal suo assistente Abdel Razzaq al Naturi che avrebbe eliminato 137 "avversari politici". Si parla anche di "un carcere segreto gestito da sei mercenari stranieri" di Haftar e di "traffico di stupefacenti". 

Un analisi, quella del giornale arabo, anticipata tuttavia dallo storico Andrea Del Boca in una video intervista rilasciata lo scorso marzo. Per lo scrittore italiano, infatti il piano della comunità internazionale di riconciliare i due governi di Tobruk e di Tripoli non basta, perchè "ognuna delle 140 tribù della Libia in questi 3-4 anni dopo la caduta di Gheddafi ha creato una specie di piccolo Stato, naturalmente con la certezza di poter utilizzarne la ricchezza". 

http://www.prealpina.it/pages/caos-libia-analisti-la-guerra-delle-tribu-per-la-ricchezza-118546.html