By Sami Zaptia.
London, 26 November 2018:
ISIS yesterday claimed responsibility for Friday’s terror attack on Libya’s desert town of Tazirbu, which led to the deaths of 9 policemen and the kidnapping of 11 others.
Tazirbu is located about 1,500 km from the capital Tripoli and 800 km from Benghazi – deep in the country’s south eastern desert.
In practice, the town is under the eastern-based Ibyan authorities and the Khalifa Hafter-led Libyan National Army (LNA).
In a statement published by its Amaq News Agency ISIS claimed that its operatives captured a number of police officers, including two Libyan army officers with the rank of Brigadier Generals and Colonels.
It also claimed that the attack resulted in the death of 29 LNA soldiers.
ISIS warned that their terrorist operations in Libya’s eastern region of Cyrenaica will continue until their captured members are released by the LNA.
Meanwhile, the LNA has denied that it has suffered any human losses and claimed that it killed 18 “terrorists”, destroyed 4 of their armed mechanisms and seizing two armed vehicles.
It will be recalled that the LNA has launched a large search operation in pursuit of the Tazirbu attackers who had fled south into the Libyan desert.
The terror attack was widely condemned domestically and by UNSMIL and the international community.
