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By Ayman Amzein.
Benghazi, 14 June 2014:
There was fierce fighting this morning around the Imhemed Al-Magarief hospital at Ajdabiya when a local . . .[restrict]brigade together with forces from the Libya National Army (LNA) attacked members of the Ajdabiya Revolutionaries’ Shoura Council (ARSC) who were trying to take a number of their wounded fighters into the building. According to a resident in Ajdabiya, five men from the brigade and the military were killed in the fighting and 18 injured.
The numbers of killed and injured among ARSC fighters, who eventually fled the scene, is unknown. However, they left behind two wounded men, a Yemeni and a Tunisian.
Those ARSC fighters being taken to the hospital had been wounded when their main base south of the town was hit at around 2 am this morning. It was initially reported that the strike had been carried out by LNA aircraft, but it has now been disclosed by the Libyan government that the US carried it out. Seven militants were reportedly killed in the attack, including Algerian terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar. He and others at the meeting were apparently at a planning meeting.
The ARSC was set up in March along the lines of the Benghazi Revolutionaries’ Shoura Council. According to locals in the town, it contains fighters from both Libya Dawn and Ansar Al-Sharia. But it is said to increasingly support the Islamic State.
The forces in Ajdabiya of Ibrahim Jadhran – mainly members of the central region Petroleum Facilities Guards – were not involved in the fighting. The brigade fighting alongside the LNA unit are, according to the local resident, Salafists. [/restrict]
