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By Noora Ibrahim.
Benghazi, 31 August:
At least ten people have been killed in Benghazi and others injured in heavy clashes . . .[restrict]between Ansar Al-Sharia and Operation Dignity on the approaches to Benina Airport and during fighting in Buatni.
One member of Saiqa Special forces claimed that losses amongst Ansar and its allies had been particularly high as the Islamists pushed harder than before to take Benina. Medical sources at Benghazi Medical Centre said ten combatants had been brought in, apparently killed in the fighting. However, they would not say if they believed the dead had fought with Ansar or Operation Dignity.
The same sources said they could not gauge how many injured had arrived at the hospital, as so many had come in and then left without being properly registered or discharged.
Benina Airport and a nearby Air Defence base are the last positions held by Operation Dignity in Benghazi since its Special Forces ally was pushed from its headquarters in Buatni at the end of Ramadan. Buatni has been the backdrop to the worst fighting in Benghazi over the last month with most residents now displaced and now sheltering in schools or with friends and relatives in other parts of the city.
The commander of Operation Dignity’s airforces Adam Saqr Geroushi told the Libya Herald that fighting had continued in Benghazi over the last 24 hours. He said his warplanes had not, however, been bombing Islamist positions but had been flying reconnaissance missions.
A warplane belonging to Operation Dignity crashed two days ago near Beida, killing its pilot. It was on an attack sortie. Operation Dignity said the plane had crashed as a result of a technical failure. The Shura Council of Derna, an extremist Islamist group, claimed however that it had downed the plane with a surface-to-air missile. Interim Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thinni today used his website to send his condolences to the family of the slain pilot.
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