TRIPOLI: A Libyan militia has arrested a number of Al-Qaeda-linked extremist leaders in a raid near the capital Tripoli, the group said.
The Misrata Joint Security Force carried out the raid against “wanted terrorists, classified as Al-Qaeda leaders,” the group linked to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord’s interior ministry said on Facebook late Wednesday.
The dawn operation “in a suburb of Tripoli” on Wednesday led to the arrest of individuals “linked to attacks launched in the capital,” it said.
The main target, an Algerian national fighting under the name “Al-Chaoui,” was rounded up along with several wanted Libyans, it added, without giving names or the total number arrested.
The force published a video of the raid, including footage of three people wearing blue uniforms with their hands bound.
It said it had also seized weapons, grenades, ammunition, documents and material used to produce explosives.
Libya has been gripped by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
Extremists and people-traffickers have taken advantage of the unrest to gain a foothold in the North African country.
Rival administrations and multiple militias are now vying for power, with the Tripoli-based GNA that holds Libya’s west at odds with a parallel administration based in the country’s east and backed by strongman Khalifa Haftar.
Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army launched an offensive on April 4 to take the capital, but his fighters have faced stiff resistance from GNA forces, including the powerful Misrata militia.
At least 1,000 people have been killed in the battle for Tripoli, according to the World Health Organization.
Libya militia says arrests Al-Qaeda leaders
Libya militia says arrests Al-Qaeda leaders
- The main target, an Algerian national fighting under the name “Al-Chaoui,” was rounded up along with several wanted Libyans
- The dawn operation “in a suburb of Tripoli” on Wednesday led to the arrest of individuals “linked to attacks launched in the capital,”
Israeli settlers burn tents, vehicles in West Bank village
- Videos show masked men rampaging into the Palestinian village of Susiya near Hebron and burning vehicles and property
- Similar attacks have become common as settlers seek to control large swathes of land in the West Bank
SUSIYA, West Bank: Israeli settlers set fire to vehicles and tents in the Palestinian village of Susiya on Tuesday night, residents said, in the latest incident of settler violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Videos verified by Reuters showed a masked group of men, who residents said were Israeli settlers, approaching the village near the city of Hebron, and later burning vehicles and Palestinian property.
“They attack us almost every day, repeatedly, because we live near the main road...Last night they burned everywhere,” Halima Abu Eid, a Susiya resident told Reuters on Wednesday.
The Israeli military said they had dispatched soldiers to deal with reports of “deliberate burnings of Palestinian property” and had opened an investigation into the incident.
Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank has increased sharply since the beginning of the war in Gaza in October 2023, with over 800 Palestinians displaced due to settler attacks in 2026 according to United Nations data.
Attacks where masked settlers arrive at night to destroy Palestinian property or attack residents have become common, as Israeli settlers seek to control large swathes of land in the West Bank.
An Israeli official previously blamed settler violence on a “fringe minority,” although Reuters reporting has shown well-organized plans to take Palestinian land in public settler social media channels.
The United Nations has documented at least 86 instances of settler violence from February 3 to 16, leading to the displacement of 146 Palestinians and the injury of 64.
Israeli indictments of settler violence are rare. At the end of 2025, Israeli monitoring group Yesh Din said of the hundreds of cases of settler violence it had documented since October 7, 2023, only 2 percent resulted in indictments. Israel’s far-right governing coalition has enabled the rapid spread of settlements, with some ministers openly stating they want to “bury” a Palestinian state.
Most world powers deem Israel’s settlements, on land it captured in a 1967 war, illegal, and numerous UN Security Council resolutions have called on Israel to halt all settlement activity.
Israel disputes the view that its settlements are unlawful and it cites biblical and historical ties to the land.
