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By Libya Herald reporters.
Benghazi, 26 December 2014:
There are conflicting claims about the outcome of an Ansar Al-Sharia attack this morning on . . .[restrict]the headquarters of the army’s 204 Brigade in Hawari. The army claims the attackers were beaten off with heavy casualties while the Shura Council of Benghazi is claiming that it seized two tanks.
What is clear is that around 7am concentrated rocket, artillery, mortar and heavy machine gun fire broke out at the headquarters. Army sources initially denied to the Libya Herald that there was anything untoward happening.
A soldier spoken to inside the headquarter said however that the army had known for two days about the upcoming attack. It appears to have been prompted because the brigade had sent men and tanks westward to help confront the Libya Dawn attack on the oil export terminals at Es Sidra and Ras Lanuf. Ansar therefore probably though the headquarters was lightly manned, when in fact some 200 members of the brigade had been deployed in the area to defend it.
This soldier also claimed that the attackers had been beaten off and suffered many dead and injured. He insisted however that the brigade had suffered no casualties.
Ansar however posted social media pictures showing two tanks that it claimed to have captured in the assault. It was not possible to contact any armed forces spokesmen to verify the claims of either the soldier or Ansar. [/restrict]
