Libya
Libya has reached a crisis point. Widespread and confused fighting has
escalated, with casualties now quoted in the low hundreds. In Tripoli,
previously calm, there has been a major conflict between forces led by
militias from Misurata, Libya's third city east of Tripoli, and those
from Zintan in the Western Mountain south of Tripoli, the former being
associated with Islamism and the latter opposed to it. The airport has
been knocked out, creating an acute problem both for Libyans and more
particularly for the international community. Foreign workers have been
leaving as best they can, some evacuated by a French frigate. Most
embassies have closed, though not the British or the Italians. Oil
storage facilities near the airport have been set on fire, creating a
huge humanitarian and environmental threat, and the Italians have
responded to a Libyan appeal for help in putting it out. Separately
fighting has continued in Cyrenaica in the east between former general
Khalifa Haftar’s Operation Dignity (Karama) and Saiqa Special Forces of
the army on one side and the extreme Islamist Ansar al-Sharia and its
allies on the other (the London based Al Hayat
reports today 31 July that Haftar has gone to Egypt "to be with his family during the Eid holiday")..
http://us7.campaign-archive1.com/?u=2820afb1fbae0c99e88fb6f52&id=ecfab5e0d3&e=672f0b89c4
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