By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 15 June 2015:
This evening IS forces have launched a counterattack on Derna and are reported to have advanced . . .[restrict]towards the town from which they were ejected two days ago. Forces from the Shoura Council of Mujahideen (SCMD) are defending the town and fighting is continuing tonight.
Earlier today there were report of IS snipers firing down in to Derna from the surrounding hills. This evening a full scale attack appears to have developed. Grad rockets and mortars are being fired into the town and there are reports of civilian dead and wounded.
IS fighters had retreated to Ras Hilal and Lartoun. They appear to have held positions near the Bab Tobruq on the outside of the town. These were targeted in air strikes earlier today by the Libyan Air Force.
It is reported that the ranks of IS have been swelled in the last 48 hours by defecting members of Ansar Al-Sharia. The men may have been influenced by the death of the son of Sufian Ben Qumu, the Ansar laeder who had sided with IS. Mohamed Ben Qumu, was killed in the fighting that saw IS driven out of Derna.
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