By Ajnadin Mustafa and Saber Ayyub.
Tripoli, 22 June 2015:
The locally-organised peace process in the west of the country is reported to . . .[restrict]have reached a new milestone with a deal between Zintan and the west Tripoli suburb of Janzur, hitherto implacable opponents.
Under the deal, said to have been agreed last night by both municipal councils and mediated with the help of local elders, the two decided to end hostilities between themselves.
According to the Colonel Idris Madi, who heads the Libyan National Army’s Western Operations Room in Zintan, the agreement would also allow the LNA to move into Janzour.
A move into Janzour is not thought imminent. The local Fursan Janzour (“Janzour Knights”) Brigade is part of the new Samoud (“Steadfastness”) Front set up by Misrata hardliner Saleh Badi, and can be expected to firmly resist any such movement.
In Janzour itself, the local media office has poured scorn on the deal while, in Zintan, locals told the Libya Herald that they knew nothing about it. “It’s just words”, a source in Janzour said this evening saying that the local militias were determined to fight any incursion. The Mobile Forces, based in the suburb, together with the Fursan and fighters from Gharyan were converging near Najila to defend the area, he noted. He added, however, that several convoys of Misratan military vehicles had been seen withdrawing from the suburb towards the Airport Road.
Meanwhile, Madi claims that his forces are six kilometres from the Ras Jedir post on the Tunisian border.
In Tripoli late this evening, heavy clashes were reported at Ghut Shaal, next to Janzur, apparently between Arab and Amazigh residents, with road blocks at Seraj.
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