UNITED NATIONS: The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court urged Libya and other nations Tuesday to help arrest six men allegedly linked to a brutal militia blamed for multiple killings and other crimes in a strategically important western town where mass graves were discovered in 2020.
Karim Khan told the UN Security Council that he is ready to work with the Libyan government and people as well as countries that are parties to the ICC and those that are not to assist in the arrests.
The ICC does not have a police force and relies on cooperation from its 124 member states to enforce arrest warrants.
The six men were either key members of or associated with the Al Kaniyat militia that controlled the town of Tarhuna from at least 2015 to June 2020, when government forces ousted them from the town. Tarhuna is located about 65 kilometers (40 miles) southeast of the capital, Tripoli.
Briefing the council by video from Libya, Khan said he met victims earlier Tuesday from Tarhuna who told him of their suffering. He said he walked “in the areas where their loved ones were tortured and killed.” One Libyan told him that “every household in Tarhuna has a victim,” he said.
“They have a steely determination. They have a clear conviction that justice and accountability and fair processes are essential for themselves, their families, their community, and for Libya at large,” Khan said.
The prosecutor said the victims’ determination “gives rise to renewed hope that things are moving in a direction away from talk to action, and the possibility of justice.”
The ICC unsealed arrest warrants in early October for six men: Abdelrahim Al-Kani, Makhlouf Douma, Nasser Al-Lahsa, Mohammed Salheen, Abdelbari Al-Shaqaqi and Fathi Al-Zinkal.
Khan said at that time that three of the men were leaders or senior members of Al Kaniyat. Three others were Libyan security officials associated with the militia at the time of the alleged crimes.
“We know where they are,” Khan said Tuesday.
The ICC prosecutor said the victims told him they are pleased with the warrants but “what they are demanding is your help to help with the arrests of those individuals and to ensure that there are trials — that they can be part of trials when they can give evidence.”
Libya plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. The country split, with rival administrations in the east and west backed by rogue militias and foreign governments.
The mass graves were found in Tarhuna after the militia’s withdrawal following the collapse of a 14-month campaign by military commander Khalifa Haftar, who is still a powerful force in the east, to wrest control of Tripoli from an array of militias allied with the former UN-recognized government.
ICC prosecutor urges nations to help arrest 6 Libyans allegedly linked to a brutal militia
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ICC prosecutor urges nations to help arrest 6 Libyans allegedly linked to a brutal militia
- The six men were either key members of or associated with the Al Kaniyat militia that controlled the town of Tarhuna from at least 2015 to June 2020
- “They have a clear conviction that justice and accountability and fair processes are essential for themselves, their families, their community, and for Libya at large,” Khan said
Iraqi army fully takes over key base following US withdrawal
BAGHDAD: US forces have fully withdrawn from an air base in western Iraq in implementation of an agreement with the Iraqi government, Iraqi officials said Saturday.
Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind down a US-led coalition fighting the Daesh group in Iraq by September 2025, with US forces departing bases where they had been stationed.
However, a small unit of US military advisers and support personnel remained. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani in October told journalists that the agreement originally stipulated a full pullout of US forces from the Ain Al-Asad air base in western Iraq by September. But “developments in Syria” since then required maintaining a “small unit” of between 250 and 350 advisers and security personnel at the base.
Now all US personnel have departed.
Iraqi Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah oversaw the assignment of tasks and duties to various military units at the base on Saturday following the withdrawal of US forces and the Iraqi Army’s full assumption of control over the base, the military said in a statement.
The statement added that Yarallah “instructed relevant authorities to intensify efforts, enhance joint work, and coordinate between all units stationed at the base, while making full use of its capabilities and strategic location.”
A Ministry of Defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly confirmed that all US forces had departed the base and had also removed all American equipment from it.
There was no statement from the US military on the withdrawal.
US forces have retained a presence in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq and in neighboring Syria.
The departure of US forces may strengthen the hand of the government in discussions around disarmament of non-state armed groups in the country, some of which have used the presence of US troops as justification for keeping their own weapons.
Al-Sudani said in a July interview with The Associated Press that once the coalition withdrawal is complete, “there will be no need or no justification for any group to carry weapons outside the scope of the state.”
