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| Africa North |
| Operation Dignity expects Benghazi battles to end in a week as further reinforcements arrive |
| 2014-10-22 |
| [Libya Herald] Operation Dignity leaders expect to take complete control of Benghazi within a week despite almost continuous fighting in the city since the pro-government forces launched their counter attack on Wednesday. At the same time, senior sources within the army told the Libya Herald that reinforcements had travelled from the east to bolster Operation Dignity and other government forces in Benghazi. The most recent reports had the convoys roughly 40 minutes away from the centre of the city, in the eastern suburb of Deryana. The Commander of Operation Dignity's Airforce, Adam Saqr Geroushi, claimed, perhaps optimistically, that pro-government forces were in control of 80 percent of territory in Benghazi. He reiterated that Dignity had forced February 17 Brigade and its allies into a retreat from Garyounis where a large portion of their sprawling central Benghazi base had been, destroying the walls around it. He explained that Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council (BRSC) forces had been pushed out of Garyounis to the south west and were forming on the outskirts of the city on the Ajdabiya road. Geroushi said most senior figures form the (BRSC) had fled to Ajdabiya and that Islamist forces were being resupplied from there. He claimed that a second area of strong resistance lay in the Hawari district in Mashroua Al-Sassafa. He said Ansar al-Sharia ...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libyaand Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet... forces there had been shelling from their positions there in attempts to make the pro-government forces extend their resources. There have been reports of shells falling on Juliana, Belawn and Kish district from Hawari. |
| Posted by:Fred |