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By Ayman Muftah.
Benghazi, 12 June 2015:
There has been fresh heavy fighting today in Derna between supporters of the Islamic State (IS) . . .[restrict]and the rival Islamist Shoura Council of Mujahideen in Derna (SCMD), with reports of IS, for the first time, losing ground. The Libyan National Army also appears to be involved in the action, reportedly carrying out bombing raids on IS positions in the town.
The SCMD claims to have killed four IS members today at the Torbuk gate in the east of the town which they now say they taken from IS.
The four have been named as Muftah Al-Ghwell, Ramdan Al-Targi, Thanat Al-Shalwi and Azu Al-Ghraibil. All are believed to be Libyans. A first aid volunteer is also reported to have been killed at the gate.
Other unconfirmed reports speak of a top IS leaders in the town, named as Abu Bara Al-Yemeni, being killed as well as an other IS member named as Badr Al-Makni, with an IS leader said to have surrendered to the SCMD.
For its part, Reuters is reporting nine people killed in the fighting.
IS which till now has had a seemingly firm grip on Derna, yesterday ordered SCMD to surrender and hand in its weapons. However, the SCMD’s main military component, the Abu Sleem Brigade, says that the same day it captured all the district of Shaiha from IS, the prison, the IS base at Wadi Al-Naga some eight kilometres west of the town at the junction of the coastal and Labraq roads, and to have surrounded the place where the IS main commander, Abu Ali Anbari, reportedly an Iraqi, has retreated.
The brigade also says that in yesterday’s fighting it killed 8 IS gunmen, including an Egyptian and a Saudi, and wounded four others. These included an “emir”, the term IS uses for a commander, naming him as Abdullah Al-Sasi.
The latest figures bring the number of fighters killed since clashes broke out on Tueday evening to around at least 30. They followed the killing, allegedly by IS members, of two senior SCMD commanders Naser Al-Akr and Salem Al-Houiti. During the Tuesday’s fighting, the main leader of SCMD, Salem Derbi was also killed.
Meanwhile, local civilians encouraged by the fighting, again took to the streets of Derna today to protest at the presence of IS. There were protests yesterday but they were disbursed by IS gunmen firing into the air.
Despite indications of SCMD/LNA collaboration today, it is also reported that a SCMD commander wounded in fighting in Derna was arrested by LNA military police when he was taken to hospital in Tobruk.
In another development, the leader of Ansar Al Sharia in Derna, Sufian Ben Qumu, is said to have declared allegiance to IS. The move, although also unconfirmed, comes as no surprise.
Ansar was originally part of the SCMD but pulled out after IS declared the alliance to be apostate (murtad).
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