By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 10 June 2016:
The Bunyan Marsus operations room set up by the Presidency Council (PC) last month says that . . .[restrict]the area Harawa, 75 kilomtres east of Sirte has been taken from forces of the so-called Islamic State (IS) and the road to Sirte is also now in anti-IS hands. In a further statement it further claimed that IS was now trapped within a 5-kilometre around Sirte.
The day also saw air raids against IS positions in and around Sirte itself. There are also claims that Sirte port and a number of buildings in the town including the Mahari Hotel have fallen to Bunyan Marsous forces, and that the bodies of six executed IS fighters were discovered in the Saadi barracks, south of Sirte, captured earlier during the week.
It is impossible to verify the full extent of the claims at present.
However, Misrata Central Hospital reported that it had received the bodies of 11 fighters killed in the Sirte fighting today as well as treating 35 injured.
For his part, Faiez Serraj as head of the PC has congratulated the operations room for its successes again IS, noting also that the latter was trapped and its members faced death. He also called on other military forces, meaning those currently supporting Khalifa Hafter, to unite and join the battle against IS.
Meanwhile he also set up a third military operations room to lead action against IS south of Sirte. Led by Colonel Mohamed Ahmed Baheej, it will cover the area between Sirte and the Jufra region, centred on Waddan and Hun.
Although the Bunyan Marsous operations room claimed its forces had taken Harawa, it was those under the second operations room, set up at the beginning of the month, that did so. Comprising in large part the central region Petroleum Facilities’ Guard, they have been moving slowly towards Sirte from the east having taken Ben Jawad and Nufliya. [/restrict]
