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By Libya Herald reporters.
Benghazi, 25 June 2017:
Two soldiers have died in fighting in Benghazi’s Sabri district as the Libyan National Army (LNA) moves its forces forward from Suq Al-Hout finally taken from militants on Friday.
On Friday and Saturday, Sabri was subjected to a series of airstrikes. LNA commanders have used fixed camera and regular drone flights to monitor militant activity and pinpoint likely strongpoints.
An LNA source said a week ago that the Eid feast was not going to interfere with military operations. Last Eid, thinly-manned LNA positions to the south of Ganfouda were breached by militants in an humiliating dawn breakout through what one LNA commander had boasted was a ring of steel.
Officially the LNA says the current fighting is intense but its relatively low frontline casualties suggest that militant resistance is weakening. Deaths and injuries from IEDs in areas recently overrun appear as frequent as from enemy fire, including deadly snipers.
There are indeed large quantities of unexploded ordinance and undiscovered booby traps in areas wrested from the militants. On Saturday the LNA repeated its warning to civilians not to try and return to their residences until they were told they had been cleared by military engineers. The problem for those impatient to get home is that de-mining teams are spread thinly and priority is being given to areas in the frontline.
