By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 4 October 2015:
The three-cornered conflict in Ajdabiya between local Islamists, forces loyal to Ibrahim Jadhran and those supporting the . . .[restrict]Libyan National Army (LNA) saw more killings over the weekend. On Friday, gunmen shot and killed Hassuna Al-Atawish Al-Maghrebi, 33, a commander of the LNA’s Brigade 302, currently fighting in Benghazi.
He was leaving the a local mosque after evening prayers with a friend when gunmen driving by in a black 4×4 vehicle shot at both of them. Maghrebi was hit in the head and died instantly. The friend, 32-year-old Ahmed Badr Mansour Al-Zwai who worked for the state electricity company GECOL in Zueitina, died in hospital yesterday of his wounds. He had taken several shots to his leg which had had to be amputated.
Local sources are blaming the killing on the largely Islamist Ajdabiya Revolutionaries’ Shoura Council (ARSC). It was blamed for the assassination ten days ago of a local militiaman Nasser Al-Rugaieh and of political activist Belgassem Al-Zwai the previous week.
One of the main leaders of the ARSC is Usama Jadhran the brother of Ibrahim, the Cyrenaica federalist who heads the central region Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG) and who forced the closure of Libya’s oil terminals for much of 2013.
Another brother is Salem, the mayor of Ajdabiya.
The ARSC is widely seen pro-Al Qaeda although there are reports that Usama is now developing sympathies with the Islamic State (IS) despite others in the council being strongly opposed to it.
Ibrahim Jadhran is seen as more focused on potential backing for his forces. Notwithstanding earlier links with LNA military head Khalifa Hafter, he has now firmly split with him. In the middle of last month, he accused Hafter of trying to kill him when he visited Tobruk.
In a statement yesterday, Jadhran’s spokesman, Ali Hassi, alleged that Hafter and the House of Representatives were effectively working IS because they had apparently not condemned its attack on a PFG checkpoint in Sidra last week.
“We don’t need you,” Hassi was quoted saying, accusing Hafter of betraying the PFG. [/restrict]
