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By Jamal Adel.
Tripoli, 11 April 2014:
Misrata-based Central Libya Shield forces withdrew from Al-Qurdabiya airbase in Sirte on Wednesday following a request . . .[restrict] from mediators and elders from the town.
The withdrawal s follows an earlier one by Central Libya Shield from three oilfields south east of Sirte last month and this week’s agreement between the government and federalists led by Ibrahim Jadhran to reopen oil export terminals at Zueitina and Hariga in Tobruk.
Spokesperson for Central Libya Shield Abubaker Al-Nuairi told the Libya Herald that the forces had agreed to leave their positions as the result of an agreement brokered by Sirte officials and elders. He added that a few units had remained behind at Sirte’s civilian airport but were also preparing to go.
Sirte was the scene of armed clashes between militias under the control of federalist leader Ibrahim Jadhran and Central Libya Shield in March when Jadhran’s Cyrenaica Defence Force entered the town before being pushed back to the Red Valley to the east losing several truckloads of arms to the Misratans in the process.
A stronghold for Qaddafi supporters, Sirte has seen some of the country’s worst violence since the revolution. A Benghazi brigade, the Zawia Martyrs Brigade, which is attached to the Saiqa force, was assigned to ensure stability in Sirte in early 2012 but has since become a target for both Qaddafi loyalists and other militants.
Last month five of the brigade’s members were killed in Sirte after a heat-seeking missile hit their vehicle. It is not known who fired it.
Nuiari said that as Central Libya Shield were preparing to leave there had been some clashes in the town but that the Misratan-led force was not involved. [/restrict]
