By Moutaz Ali.
Tripoli, 7 July 2017:
Three soldiers attached to Libyan National Army (LNA) and two of their friends were found shot dead today in Wadi Rabie, near Tripoli International Airport.
The three were members of Brigade 103, which belongs to the LNA’s western command. In a statement this evening mourning them, it said they had been shot “treacherously.”
Naming four of them as Ghassan Shahima, Wajdi Shahima, Ahmed Al-Alem and Ahmed Al-Yacoubi (the identity of the fifth man has not been announced), it said they were originally from Tajoura and had been visiting friends and family in the capital for the first time in a long time. They had then gone missing, only to be found dead at dawn this morning.
It vowed to avenge their deaths which it blamed on Tripoli’s militias. It did not state which ones.
Wadi Rabie, consisting mainly of farms, is largely in the hands of militias opposed to both the Presidency Council and the LNA.
Brigade 103, formerly Brigad 101, is operating in the Bir Ghanem area, 90 kilometres southwest of the capital.
