CAIRO: A suicide car bomb attack in the eastern city of Benghazi targeting Libyan troops killed 23 people and wounded dozens of others Tuesday, a hospital official said.
The official said the wounded were still arriving at the hospital in the aftermath of the bombing in the Al-Qawarsha district on the outskirts of the city, Libya’s second largest. For the past two years, fighting has been raging in Benghazi between forces under the command of Brig. Gen. Khalifa Hifter and Islamic militias.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
A coalition of Islamist militias called the Shoura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries, which includes the Al-Qaeda affiliate known as Ansar Al-Shariah, claimed responsibility for the deadly attack in a statement posted on its Twitter account.
The attack comes after the United States started an air campaign on Monday in the central city of Sirte, the last bastion of the Islamic State extremist group in Libya. The strikes followed a request made by the internationally-recognized government and presidency council in the capital, Tripoli. The two executive bodies were formed after the United Nations brokered a deal among Libya’s rival factions.
Libya has descended into chaos following the 2011 ouster and the killing of longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi. Since 2014, the country has been divided between two governments and parliaments, and a loose set of militias and tribes. The UN-brokered government led by Fayez Serraj aimed at healing the rift, but a crucial vote of confidence has yet to be obtained from the parliament.
The parliament in eastern Libya does not recognize the UN government, and many in the east are angry that Serraj’s administration invited foreign military intervention without the eastern parliament’s consent.
The US airstrikes, which were authorized by President Barack Obama, are supporting the militias of Misrata, a city next to Sirte that is leading the anti IS-operation. Misrata forces have been battling IS since May in fierce fighting that has killed and injured hundreds of militiamen.
Car bombing in Benghazi kills 23 people
Car bombing in Benghazi kills 23 people
The UN says Al-Hol camp population has dropped sharply as Syria moves to relocate remaining families
The UN says Al-Hol camp population has dropped sharply as Syria moves to relocate remaining families
- Forces of Syria’s central government captured the Al-Hol camp on Jan. 21 during a weekslong offensive against the SDF, which had been running the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade
DAMASCUS: The UN refugee agency said Sunday that a large number of residents of a camp housing family members of suspected Daesh group militants have left and the Syrian government plans to relocate those who remain.
Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UNHCR’s representative in Syria, said in a statement that the agency “has observed a significant decrease in the number of residents in Al-Hol camp in recent weeks.”
“Syrian authorities have informed UNHCR of their plan to relocate the remaining families to Akhtarin camp in Aleppo Governorate (province) and have requested UNHCR’s support to assist the population in the new camp, which we stand ready to provide,” he said.
He added that UNHCR “will continue to support the return and reintegration of Syrians who have departed Al-Hol, as well as those who remain.”
The statement did not say how residents had left the camp or how many remain. Many families are believed to have escaped either during the chaos when government forces captured the camp from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces last month or afterward.
There was no immediate statement from the Syrian government and a government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
At its peak after the defeat of IS in Syria in 2019, around 73,000 people were living at Al-Hol. Since then, the number has declined with some countries repatriating their citizens. The camp’s residents are mostly children and women, including many wives or widows of IS members.
The camp’s residents are not technically prisoners and most have not been accused of crimes, but they have been held in de facto detention at the heavily guarded facility.
Forces of Syria’s central government captured the Al-Hol camp on Jan. 21 during a weekslong offensive against the SDF, which had been running the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade. A ceasefire deal has since ended the fighting.
Separately, thousands of accused IS militants who were held in detention centers in northeastern Syria have been transferred to Iraq to stand trial under an agreement with the US
The US military said Friday that it had completed the transfer of more than 5,700 adult male IS suspects from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody.
Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation said a total of 5,704 suspects from 61 countries who were affiliated with IS — most of them Syrian and Iraqi — were transferred from prisons in Syria. They are now being interrogated in Iraq.
