Article

2016-11-27 Africa North

Libya: Air strike on Tebu Tibesti mountain control point

Tripoli, 26 November 2016:

The Tebu-held Kilinja gate astride the main road into Kufra has been bombed for the second time in a month.

Like its predecessor, this morning’s attack on the position 350 kilometres south-west of Rebyana caused no casualties. However it has highlighted concerns that the Marj-based army is moving more firmly against the Tebu who were once seen as its allies.

Tebu sources say they have obtained a leaked document from Marj which sets out the new policy. Dated 22 September this year, it apparently gives full authority to the army’s Kufra Operations Room to cleanse both Rebyana and Um Aranib in the south-west from what it had described as “criminals” and “rogues”.

Today’s attack was said to have been carried out by an AT-802 – also known as an Air Tractor because it is based on a US crop-spraying aircraft. It is not known that the Libyan airforce operate this aircraft type. However the UAE does and is supposed to be flying six of them from Al-Khadim air base to the south-east of Marj and Jardas Al-Abid.

The AT-802 has a range of some 1200 km which would mean that if it was an aircraft from Al-Khadim it would need to have been operating from a forward airfield, probably Kufra.

The Kilinja gate has been under Tebu control since 2011. It is regarded as a major transit point for human traffickers and drugs smugglers, including migrants and contraband coming from the Siwa and Farafra oases in Egypt. The gate controls the main pass into the Tibesti mountains and Chad. The area remains heavily mined from Qaddafi’s conflict with Chad between 1978 and 1989.

Posted by badanov 2016-11-27 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11141 views ] Top

#1 I can find no "Kalinja gate" in the numerous maps I have of Libya. That a site somewhere south of Rabiana would be a transit point for arms from Siwa or Farafra oases in Egypt doesn't compute. Rebiana itself is a few kilometers due west of Kufra, and Um Aranib is located just east of Sebha. Thus, a check of the map indicates that someone has decided to eliminate once and for all the always unreliable ethnic Tubu from Saharan Libya.

Posted by Heriberto Greper9897 2016-11-27 07:45|| 2016-11-27 07:45|| Front Page Top

#2 Interesting. In what way are they always unreliable, Heriberto Greper9897?

Posted by trailing wife 2016-11-27 07:54|| 2016-11-27 07:54|| Front Page Top

#3 A quick background on the Toubou tribe.

And - why they are "unreliable":

Under Qaddafi, Arab tribes such as the Zawiyah were favored and used to control the minority groups in the South – an action that likely fostered Toubou resentment toward the Southern Arab tribes.

[T]he Tuareg and Toubou broke their long-lasting Midi Midi truce and have clashed in Ubari for strategic control of smuggling routes and the nearby El-Sharara oilfield. However, the Toubou are not exclusively at odds with the Tuareg. Economic control over vital trade routes, often doubling as smuggling routes, has caused clashes between the Toubou tribes and the Zawiyah tribe (Arab) in Kufra, as well as between the Toubou and the Awlad Sulayman tribe (Arab) in Sabha.

The awarding of Southern border control to the Toubou after the revolution likely escalated the clashes between Toubou and Arab tribes, as the revolution removed some advantages and existing power arrangements previously awarded to Arab tribes – creating a change in the Southern power dynamics. This also explains the wider range of Toubou-Arab animosities compared to Tuareg-Arab animosities.

Posted by Pappy 2016-11-27 11:13|| 2016-11-27 11:13|| Front Page Top

#4 Thank you Pappy. I would only add that the Toubou (Tubu, Tebu, etc.,) served as bodyguards for King Idris at the time he was overthrown by Qaddafi in 1969. Some then served for a time as guards for Qadaffi. However, most of the Toubou -- heterodox Sufi who had been allied to Idris and the Sanoussi Brotherhood, returned to the isolated Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti of Chad. There, they were the often questionable allies of Chad's dictator Hissene Habre. In general, given their usual treachery the tough Toubou were detested by the equally tough Zaghawa of Chad and Darfur, and by the tribes of southern Libya and northern Niger.

Posted by Heriberto Greper9897 2016-11-27 19:58|| 2016-11-27 19:58|| Front Page Top

#5 They're also not good candidate fodder for Islamic radicalism. That puts them in the middle of a triangle.

Posted by Pappy 2016-11-27 21:43|| 2016-11-27 21:43|| Front Page Top

#6 Rantburg U -- team teaching! :-) Thank you both.

Posted by trailing wife 2016-11-27 22:14|| 2016-11-27 22:14|| Front Page Top

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