BENGHAZI/TRIPOLI: Nine soldiers were killed on Saturday in an attack claimed by Islamic State on a training camp belonging to the eastern Libyan forces of Khalifa Haftar, hospital authorities said.
The attack took place in the city of Sebha, located in part of the oil-producing south that is targeted by armed groups looking to exploit a security void.
Haftar has concentrated his forces in the northwest, where they have been embroiled for the past month in a battle for the capital Tripoli with fighters allied to the divided country’s internationally recognized government.
Clashes raged in Tripoli’s southern outskirts throughout the night with the rival forces firing at each other with artillery guns, residents said. No more details were immediately available.
Daesh claimed the Sebha attack. Its fighters had killed or wounded 16 and freed inmates from a prison, the jihadist group said in a statement posted online.
A military source said a jail inside the attacked Jabril Baba camp had been stormed but gave no details. Sebha hospital put the number of dead at nine, a statement on its website said.
Hamed Al-Khaiyali, head of the local municipality, earlier told Reuters one soldier had been beheaded and seven others “slaughtered” or shot. Pictures posted online showed bodies fully covered by blankets.
A source in Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) blamed Daesh and Chadian fighters for the attack, the latter a term used by the LNA for tribesmen opposing Haftar.
News-gathering in southern Libya is difficult due to the absence of an effective state authority in a region dominated by different armed groups and tribes.
The LNA, which is allied to a parallel government in the east, faced strong opposition from ethnic Tebus during a military campaign it ran in the south at the start of the year.
Sebha — like much of the south and its oilfields — is controlled by the LNA but the force has co-opted local armed groups and tribesmen to control territory.
Such alliances often shift in a country that has been in chaos since the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
The LNA has moved troops from its southern campaign toward the Tripoli front, also moving in heavy guns in the past week. But it has been unable to breach defenses in the city’s southern suburbs.
Daesh is active in the south to where it retreated after losing its stronghold in the central city of Sirte in December 2016.
There have been several attacks in southern Libya since the Tripoli offensive, among them an assault on the Tamanhint air base outside Sebha and clashes at the El-Sharara oilfield, the country’s biggest.
As well as the humanitarian cost, the Libya conflict threatens to disrupt oil supplies, boost migration to Europe and has scuppered a UN peace plan to hold elections to produce a unified government and army.
Daesh attack on Haftar camp in south Libya kills 9 soldiers
Daesh attack on Haftar camp in south Libya kills 9 soldiers
- A military source said Daesh militants and Chadian opposition fighters were responsible for the attack
Syrian government, Kurds to extend truce: sources to AFP
- No official announcement has yet come from Damascus or SDF, but two sources said truce is to be extended by one month
DAMASCUS: The Syrian government and Kurdish forces have agreed to extend a ceasefire set to expire Saturday, as part of a broader deal on the future of Kurd-majority areas, several sources told AFP.
No official announcement has yet come from Damascus or the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), but two sources said the truce is to be extended by one month.
On Tuesday, Damascus and the SDF agreed to a four-day ceasefire after Kurdish forces relinquished swathes of territory to government forces, which also sent reinforcements to a Kurdish stronghold in the northeast.
A diplomatic source in Damascus told AFP the ceasefire, due to expire on Saturday evening, will be extended “for a period of up to one month at most.”
A Kurdish source close to the negotiations confirmed “the ceasefire has been extended until a mutually acceptable political solution is reached.”
A Syrian official in Damascus said the “agreement is likely to be extended for one month,” adding that one reason is the need to complete the transfer of Daesh group militant detainees from Syria to Iraq.
All sources requested anonymity because they are not allowed to speak to the media.
After the SDF lost large areas to government forces, Washington said it would transfer 7,000 Daesh detainees to prisons in Iraq.
Europeans were among 150 senior IS detainees who were the first to be transferred on Wednesday, two Iraqi security officials told AFP.
The transfer is expected to last several days.
Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq in 2014, but backed by a US-led coalition, the SDF ultimately defeated the group and went on to jail thousands of suspected militants and detain tens of thousands of their relatives.
The truce between Damascus and the Kurds is part of a new understanding over Kurdish-majority areas in Hasakah province, and of a broader deal to integrate the Kurds’ de facto autonomous administration into the state.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s Islamist forces toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad in 2024.
The new authorities are seeking to extend state control across Syria, resetting international ties including with the United States, now a key ally.
The Kurdish source said the SDF submitted a proposal to Damascus through US envoy Tom Barrack that would have the government managing border crossings — a key Damascus demand.
It also proposes that Damascus would “allocate part of the economic resources — particularly revenue from border crossings and oil — to the Kurdish-majority areas,” the source added.
Earlier this month, the Syrian army recaptured oil fields, including the country’s largest, while advancing against Kurdish forces.
