By Libya Herald reporters.
Benghazi, 3 September 2017:
The Awagir tribe has reaffirmed its support for the House of Representatives, the interim government of Abdullah Thinni and the Libyan National Army (LNA) under Khalifa Hafter.
Tribal leaders met today in Soloug. Last week, Faraj Al-Gaem, an Awagir, flew to Benghazi immediately after being appointed the deputy interior minister in the Presidency Council’s (PC) Government of National Accord (GNA). The move was seen as an attempt by PC head Faeiz Serraj to disrupt the tribal coalition that Hafter has assembled.
Gaem, who fell out with Hafter in 2015, was a Revolutionary fighter who ran a powerful militia that worked within the LNA . Members of that militia welcomed and guarded him when he flew into Benina.
However today, Awagir leaders told their tribesmen serving with the LNA to continue to support it. The tribe is regarded as dominant in and around Benghazi. Among those at their gathering in t town was dissident PC vice-president Ali Gatrani and the Benghazi mayor Abdelrahman Elabbar.
Also prominent was Waleed Ellawati, eldest son of the late tribal leader Braik Ellawati who was murdered this May in Soloug along with six others including his nine year-old son. A massive explosion beneath his car also injured 18 others. This crime has been blamed on the Benghazi Revolutionaries’ Shoura Council .
