By Libya Herald reporters.
Benghazi, 28 December 2016:
There were reportedly emotional exchanges as local family members of women and children trapped inside Benghazi’s Ganfouda terrorist enclave begged unsuccessfully for their relatives to leave.
The Libyan National Army has not revealed how the conversations were conducted. Instead it said that the terrorists had offered to release prisoners if civilians could have safe passage toward the beach, where it is resumed boats would pick them up. It is unclear if the “safe passage” meant that the identity of the evacuees would not be checked nor that they would have the be searched. It was the LNA’s insistence on these measures which has frustrated past evacuation negotiations. It is not clear how many prisoners the terrorists are holding and who they are.
Today the army managed to free two men imprisoned in Ganfouda for nine months. They had been visiting their families in the district when they were seized by terrorists.
LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari has said that commanders are still trying to see how they can bring out the families. He reported that women and children could be heard inside buildings on the frontline and that troops had been ordered not to fire.
Elsewhere in Benghazi today there have been air raids on terrorist positions in the downtown districts of Sabri and Suq Al-Hut but no attempt by ground forces to enter them.
