By Libya Herald staff.
Benghazi, 2 October 2014:
The US private intelligence company, IntelCenter, which provides information to various organisations, has listed the . . .[restrict]Benghazi Revolutionaries Shoura Council as the eighth most dangerous group in the world. The Group Threat Index (GTI) listing is based on what the organisation says is “terrorist and rebel activity” over a 30-day period – in this case, up to 15 September 2014. The activity is, it claims, drawn from alerts, messaging traffic, videos, photos, incidents and the number of people killed and injured by a group over the 30-day period.
The latest listing is:
- Islamic State (IS)
- Al-Shabaab (mainly in Somalia)
- Boko Haram (mainly in Nigeria)
- Taliban
- Al-Houthi movement (in Yemen)
- Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
- Islamic Front (in Syria)
- Benghazi Revolutionaries Shoura Council
- Al-Nusrah Front (in Syria and Lebanon)
- Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
The BRSC includes Ansar al-Sharia, Libya Shield No. 1 Brigade, 17 February Martyrs Brigade and Rafallah al-Sahati Brigade.
Questions have been asked in the past about InterCenter’s reliability and credibility, although not recently.
So far no country or international organisation such as the UN or EU has listed the BRSC as a terrorist organisation. The US government has classified Ansar Al-Sharia as such, as has the Libyan government, and France demanded that the UN do so at the meeting on Libya held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York a week ago. It is reported that the EU is preparing to do so.
Meanwhile, given the wave of assassinations and attempted assassinations in the past fortnight in Benghazi, most of which are being attributed to BRSC affiliates, it seems likely that the organisation will further climb IntelCenter’s danger index.
Editor’s note: the headline to this story originally read “UN intelligence company”. We apologise for this error. [/restrict]
