MISRATA: Libya on Monday repatriated the remains of 20 Egyptian Coptic Christians executed by Daesh in 2015 near the city of Sirte, their former bastion in the country.
The coffins were loaded at Misrata airport onto a Libyan Afriqiyah Airways cargo plane bound for Cairo.
The bodies of the 20 Egyptian men and another man whom a medical examiner believes to be from sub-Saharan Africa were found in October near Sirte.
The doctor, Othman Al-Zentani, said identifying the bodies was “not an easy task,” as they had decomposed and the heads had been separated from the torsos.
DNA samples sent by families of the victims were vital to the identification process, Al-Zentani said.
On February 15, 2015, Daesh broadcast a video showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians abducted in January that year in western Libya.
After the executions, tens of thousands of Egyptians working in Libya’s construction, service, agriculture and handicraft sectors fled the country.
Libya has been gripped by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, with rival administrations and multiple militias vying for control of the oil-rich country.
A UN-backed unity government based in the capital Tripoli has struggled to assert its authority outside the west, and military strongman Khalifa Haftar controls much of the east.
Daesh remains active in central and southern Libya despite being forced out of their northern bastion Sirte, Qaddafi’s hometown, in December 2016.
Libya repatriates bodies of Egyptian Copts killed by Daesh
Libya repatriates bodies of Egyptian Copts killed by Daesh
- The remains of 20 Egyptian Coptic Christians executed by Daesh in 2015, near the city of Sirte, were repatriated.
- After the executions, tens of thousands of Egyptians working in Libya’s construction, service, agriculture and handicraft sectors fled the country.
Syria accuses Hezbollah of firing shells into its territory
- “The Syrian Arab Army will not tolerate any aggression targeting Syria,” the army said in a statement to SANA
DAMASCUS: Syria said Iran-backed Hezbollah had fired artillery shells into its territory from Lebanon overnight, state media reported on Tuesday, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Shia movement.
Syrian army officials said artillery shells fired from Lebanon landed near the town of Serghaya, west of Damascus, the state news agency SANA reported on Tuesday.
The army accused Hezbollah of targeting Syrian army positions, telling the news agency it observed Hezbollah reinforcements at the Syrian-Lebanese border.
“The Syrian Arab Army will not tolerate any aggression targeting Syria,” the army said in a statement to SANA.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes.
Hezbollah and Israeli forces have clashed in eastern Lebanon in recent days, and Israel has carried out strikes across Lebanon, including on the capital Beirut.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Hezbollah of working to “collapse” the state, while the head of the group’s parliamentary bloc said it had “no other option... than the option of resistance.”
Hezbollah provided military support to former Syrian president Bashar Assad, who was overthrown in December 2024 by an Islamist coalition hostile to the pro-Iranian Shia movement.
Since then, its supply routes from Syria have been cut off, and Lebanese and Syrian authorities are trying to combat smuggling across the porous border between the two countries.
