By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 3 August 2015:
Ajdabiya is said to be calm today, with roads open after Libyan National Army (LNA) units . . .[restrict]and militants pulled their forces out of the town following a ceasefire agreement yesterday mediated by the town’s mayor Salem Jadhran.
Fierce fighting broke out in Ajdabiya on Saturday, especially in the town’s industrial district, between the LNA’s Battalion 21 border guards supported by Battalion 302 and militants after an LNA checkpoint was attacked on the Ajdabiya–Tobruk road the previous day.
At least 11 wounded members of the LNA forces were airlifted to Tobruk yesterday.
The militants were reported to have been members of the Islamic State (IS). However, local residents now tell the Libya Herald that they were members of the Ajdabiya Shoura Council, one of whose leading members is the mayor’s brother, Osama Jadhran. The Shoura Council is closely allied to IS.
The two battalions and the militants have now withdrawn outside the town.
Ajdabiya has other problems. It is full of displaced people from Benghazi, Sirte and other towns in the country; there is a large number of Tawerghan exiles. Students’ exams have had to be postponed too and there is a severe shortage of petrol because it is being smuggled to the south of the country.
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