Libyan Strongman Khalifa Haftar
Video VOA A look at Gen. Khalifa Haftar, Libya’s military strongman, who is pushing to take the capital, Tripoli, from the U.N.-backed government.
On 17 October, 2018, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union convened its 802nd meeting on the situation in Libya. The African Union expressed its support for United Nations efforts to address the conflict. The African Union emphasized the need for reconciliation and proposed a joint effort with the United Nations in that regard.
During the reporting period, the situation in the western region was volatile owing to month-long armed clashes between armed groups in Tripoli. The main groups involved in the fighting against the Tripoli armed groups – the Tripoli Revolutionary Brigade and the Central Command/Abu Salim brigade – were Kaniyat/the Seventh Brigade armed group from Tarhouna, allied with armed elements mostly from Misrata forming the “Samoud Brigade”. On 27 August, the clashes escalated into full-scale fighting with the use of heavy weaponry in several areas of the capital, mainly in its southern districts, which have substantial civilian populations. Several key positions held by the Government of National Accord- affiliated Tripoli Revolutionary Brigade were captured by Kaniyat during the early days of the fighting, which the Brigade was able to recapture in mid-September. More than 700 inmates escaped from prisons located in conflict areas. Thousands of families fled their homes in the capital and sought shelter elsewhere. Mitiga International Airport, the only operational airport in the capital, was targeted and remained closed for weeks.
Despite a brokered peace in Sept, Outside of the capital, there were continued reports of attacks, clashes, kidnappings and assassinations. On 25 September, in the town of Jafara, 25 km south of Tripoli, unidentified gunmen attacked a local police station, killing three polices officers and kidnapping one. On 10 October, a stray bullet hit a United Nations armoured vehicle, part of a convoy travelling from Tripoli to Zuwara International Airport. No one was injured. After the end of hostilities in the capital, score-settling among armed groups in Tripoli resulted in three fatalities and heightened tensions in parts of the capital.
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) continued to be active in the vast desert areas south of its former stronghold of Sirte, extending southwards to the Sabha area. The organization also continued to operate smaller cells out of the coastal areas of central and western Libya. In the midst of the fighting between armed groups in Tripoli, ISIL claimed responsibility for an attack on 10 September against the headquarters of the National Oil Corporation in Tripoli. Four attackers, a National Oil Corporation employee and a security guard were killed and at least six people were injured. The incident was the second ISIL attack in the capital in 2018, following the assault launched on 2 May against the High National Election Commission. On 29 October, ISIL further claimed responsibility for an attack on the al-Fuqaha village in the central Jufra region, which resulted in five deaths and the abduction of at least eight civilians.
Islamist extremists, particularly those associated to ISIL, continued to exploit the fragmentation in Libya, its open land borders and the persistent weakness of State institutions. The organization has used remote areas of central and southern Libya for training, recruitment and the preparation of attacks. However, counter-terrorism operations by the Government of National Accord in the west and the Libyan National Army in the east increased pressure on extremist elements, limiting their freedom of movement in the main populated areas. On 8 October, in Derna, the Libyan National Army arrested a former officer of the Egyptian army affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. UN report Jan 2019
CENTCOM Yemen Strike Summary Jan. 1 – Apr. 1, 2019
U.S. Central Command conducted 8 total air strikes in Yemen in 2019 targeting al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
CENTCOM conducted two air strikes in January and six airstrikes in March. The January air strikes took place in Marib and Al Bayda Governates respectively. The March airstrikes took place in Al Bayda Governate.
All strikes this year targeted AQAP terrorists. The Jan. 1 strike targeted Jamal al-Badawi, one of the planners involved in the USS Cole bombing.
“In coordination with the government of Yemen, U.S. forces continue to support ongoing counterterrorism operations against AQAP and ISIS-Y to disrupt and destroy militants’ attack-plotting efforts, networks, and freedom of maneuver within the region,” said Lt. Col. Earl Brown, a CENTCOM spokesman.
CENTCOM does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, the number of individual munition impact points against a target, or the organization of U.S. forces DOD.