Islamists seize key Benghazi army base as Tripoli fire rages

Agence France-Presse ^ | July 30 2014 | Imed Lamloum

[george76]

Islamist groups seized the headquarters of the Libyan army's special forces in Libya's second city Benghazi after days of fighting, as a huge blaze raged at a fuel depot near the capital's airport.

An Islamist and jihadist alliance announced the capture Tuesday of the main military base in the eastern city in a statement which was confirmed by an army official.

He said jihadists of Ansar al-Sharia, blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Washington, were among the groups.

Intense fighting in Benghazi for the past week has claimed about 60 lives since Saturday, medical officials in the city said.

"Special forces under the command of (Colonel) Wanis Abu Khamada withdrew after several attacks," said the army official after the biggest loss yet for the armed forces in its fight against the country's powerful militias.

The special forces are one of the units of Libya's regular armed forces that support rogue Libyan general Khalifa Haftar but have not placed themselves under his command.

...

Former deputy prime minister and newly-elected MP Mustapha Abu Shagur was meanwhile freed by his kidnappers, hours after they snatched him from his Tripoli home, his family said.

The kidnapping highlighted the failure of authorities to rein in dozens of militias that sprang up during the 2011 uprising which overthrew longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

[Gaffer]

Another video I suppose?

[PGalt]

The jihad rolls…

The universalism of Islam, in its all-embracing creed, is imposed on the be- lievers as a continuous process of warfare, psychological and political, if not strictly military. . . . The Jihad, accordingly, may be stated as a doctrine of a permanent state of war, not continuous fighting.” - Majid Khadduri; The Quranic Concept of War - Joseph C. Myers