Archive for the ‘Libya’ Category

News Roundup – Sat, Feb 18, 2017 – The Libya Observer

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The Embassy of Germany in Libya said it had sent a solar power system to the Benghazi Children's Hospital via the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Libya as part of a project worth 5 million euros to install solar power systems at healthcare centers and hospitals across Libya.

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The Head of the Labor Union of Al-Sarir oilfield of Al-Kahlij oil company said 36 workers at the field were poisoned by certain foods and were treated at the fields clinic, which said the cases were not so serious.

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Two technicians at the maintenance teams in southern Sirte were injured as they were repairing a power generator, a source said, adding that the two persons who work for Al-Khalij Sirte were injured in Thalateen area, western Sirte and were sent to Misrata for treatment.

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Al-Kufra airport to see a flights route operating starting from today after two years of closure over clashes between Tubu and Al-Zway tribes, said the Civil Aviation Authority.

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The media office of Al-Bunyan Al-Marsoos said that 3362 displaced families have returned to Sirte up until last Friday as per the six-stage plan they laid down, knowing that the third stage started last Thursday.

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Spokesman of the Baer Al-Ashahar municipal council said the HoR member of Al-Kufra, Jebril Al-Zway, who was kidnapped late last January from in front of his house in Tobruk by unknown armed men, has been released without giving information about the reasons or persons behind the abduction.

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GECOLs eastern control department in Benghazi said the third steam turbine in northern Benghazi power plant will be out of order on Sunday and will last for three days as such for needed maintenance of the leakage in the water at the turbine. It said power outage hours will take place as a result of the procedure.

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UN-proposed governments Presidential Council said Sunday, February 19, will be an official day off at the state institutions in commemoration of the 17 February Revolution, except for the humanitarian, emergency and other vital institutions.

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Tunisias Foreign Ministry said a tripartite ministerial meeting for Egyptian, Algerian and Tunisian foreign ministers will take place on Sunday as part of the initiative of the neighboring countries to resolve Libyas political crisis.

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News Roundup - Sat, Feb 18, 2017 - The Libya Observer

Can EU Shift Migrant Crisis to the Source? In Libya, the Odds Are Long – New York Times


New York Times
Can EU Shift Migrant Crisis to the Source? In Libya, the Odds Are Long
New York Times
Officers in the Libyan Coast Guard, they were trained by the Italians to intercept and rescue migrant boats near the Libyan coast before they reach international waters. Normally, European forces intercept migrant boats and must take them to Italy. But ...
Libya is not Turkey: why the EU plan to stop Mediterranean ...Huffington Post
Italy completes training of first batch of Libyan coastguardsLibya Herald
Italy secures backing of Libyan mayors to curb human trafficking ...RT
Huffington Post UK -Thomson Reuters Foundation -EUobserver
all 52 news articles »

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Can EU Shift Migrant Crisis to the Source? In Libya, the Odds Are Long - New York Times

AP Interview: Military says Libya strike bore critical intel – Beloit Daily News

February 17, 2017 at 9:29 am | By LOLITA C. BALDOR

MUNICH (AP) Senior U.S. military officials say the massive airstrikes that killed more than 80 Islamic State militants in southern Libya last month generated critical computer data, documents and information from prisoner interrogations that the U.S. can use to track and target more fighters.

Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the head of U.S. Africa Command, told The Associated Press in an interview Friday that the U.S. got significant intelligence from the camps after the bombings, adding that "there's some things we're working on." Waldhauser declined to go into detail about intelligence that was gathered.

But a senior U.S. military official described some of the information gathered and said that several Islamic State fighters who survived the Jan. 18th strikes were taken and interrogated by forces from Libya's Government of National Accord.

The official said the intelligence collected at the IS camps confirmed that the fighters had direct communication with the core Islamic State group in Syria and provided information about how they move through tunnels in the country. The official was not authorized to discuss the details publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

"We did get some actionable intelligence and we continue to work with that and develop what we can from it," Waldhauser told The Associated Press at the Munich Security Conference, which began Thursday. "We are watching, we are paying attention to where we can see numbers of them gathering and that is a focus to a large degree of our intelligence development."

U.S. Air Force B-2 bombers attacked the Islamic State military camps in Libya's lawless southern region, targeting fighters who former Defense Secretary Ash Carter said "were actively planning operations against our allies in Europe." The senior U.S. military official said that none of the information appeared to suggest an imminent attack against the west.

In addition to the Libyan militia troops, there were special operations forces from the United Kingdom that took part in the intelligence collection, according to the military official. The official said that all of the IS members at the camps were foreign fighters and that none were Libyan.

Waldhauser said the military had watched the camps since late last fall, but that the fighters move around southern Libya and don't stay in any one place for long.

He called the strike a "devastating blow" to the group.

"It was successful from the standpoint that we really did, I think, send a very strong signal to ISIL that remains in Libya that we will watch you and we will come after you," Waldhauser said, using another acronym for Islamic State.

He said the foreign fighter flow across the porous borders of the countries surrounding Libya, including Chad and Tunisia, continues to be a concern.

Overall, Waldhauser said, there are still "a couple hundred" IS members left in Libya. The total was well over 5,000 last year, but that number began to drop as Libyan forces, backed by U.S. airstrikes, began to successfully push them out of the central coastal city of Sirte.

Libyan forces ousted the last IS militants from their holdouts in Sirte in December.

During the January airstrikes by the U.S., the B-2 bombers flew more than 30 hours roundtrip from Missouri and dropped about 100 precision-guided munitions. It was an unusual mission since the U.S. doesn't often send the bombers on counterterrorism strikes.

The bombings, which also included strikes by Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drones, destroyed a lot of the camps, and likely a lot of potential intelligence information. The camps were about 45 kilometers, or 28 miles, southwest of Sirte.

It also was the first time the B-2s were used in combat since the 2011 air campaign that forced Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi from power and led to his killing.

Libya plunged into chaos and lawlessness after Gadhafi's ouster and the subsequent civil war. Two rival administrations operate in the east and west of the vast, oil-rich nation.

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AP Interview: Military says Libya strike bore critical intel - Beloit Daily News

Libya, not Syria, will be the foundation on which Trump and Putin build their new world order – The Independent

The focus of Natos conference in Brussels, the first since Donald Trump got to the White House, was on the message he sent to an organisation of Western allies he had called obsolete while speaking of his admiration for Vladimir Putin.

The message, a veiled threat, conveyed by US defence secretary James Mattis, was that the continuing failure of the alliance to pay its share on security would lead to the US reevaluating its commitment to the defence of Europe. That and the continuing fallout over Trumpnational security adviserMichael Flynns departure after clandestine contacts with the Russians, were the sources of fascination and foreboding here.

Almost unnoticeda development took place at the end of the summit, on Libya, which is likely to have great resonance in relations between Nato, the US and Russia, Trump and Putin. Natos secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, announced that the alliance is likely to provide security support to the Libyan government of Fayez al-Sarraj.

One month of Donald Trump as President of the United States

We have said for some time that we are ready to help Libyabut that any assistance has to be based on a request from the Libyan government, said Stoltenberg.This is the request we received yesterday training local forces is one of the best weapons in the fight against terrorism and building stability.

Libya has, of course, become a source of huge trouble for Europe since David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy instigated Natos military intervention and the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi six years ago. It is the main conduit for hundreds of thousands of refugees crossing the Mediterranean and also the lawless place where Isis has established its main base for carrying out attacks in the Maghreb.

Special forces of Western countries are already in action in Libya the US has carried out airstrikes on Isis and other Islamist terrorists. But any formal deployment of forces by Nato faces problems. There is the danger of mission creep:being sucked into a violent and semi-anarchic quagmire, as well as the fact that the Government of National Accord, headed by Fayez al-Sarraj, whichNato is supposed to prop up, has very little territory and very little power.

The man who claims to wield real power an aspiring new Gaddafi according to his enemies is former general Khalifa Haftar with his forcetheLibyan National Army (LNA).He has the backing ofEgypt and the UAEwhose warplanes have carried out airstrikes in his support. Now, crucially,he has thesupport of a Russia expandingits influence across the Middle-East and North Africa.

General Haftar went to Moscow twice last year to seek help and then turned up on board the aircraft carrierAdmiral Kuznetsovas it was returning from waters off the coast of Syria where it had been part of theblitzkrieg enabling Bashar al-Assad to recapture Aleppo. He met the Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, on board, to discuss, according to the Kremlin, fighting international terrorist groups in the Middle East.

The USunder Barack Obamahad refused to deal with General Haftarbut the Libyan commander and his backers, the parliament in Benghazi, one of the countrys three governments, say they are also now optimistic that they will get the support of the Trump administration.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was the first foreign leader to congratulate Trump after his victory and the Egyptian president has been pressing Washington to switch its support to General Haftar. And, according to reports, members of the Trump team have started discussing the Haftar option. An American official in Brussels commented:The Trump people may well think Libya would be a less sensitive theatre to cooperate with the Russians on counter-terrorism than Syria: the common conception is that Libya is a mess we have Daesh[Isis]running around there and if this guy Haftar is being effective, then maybe he is the man.

Even before the coming of Trump there has been a feeling among some American officials that the problems being faced by Europe from Libya were, to an extent, self-induced. Paris and London were very much the cheerleaders in getting rid of Colonel Gaddafi, with Washington somewhat dubious about the outcome.The military mission was initially French and British led, but the Americans had to step in as shortfalls in equipment and bombs and missiles became apparent. In his speech to Nato at the end of the conflict, US defence secretary Leon Panetta warned that legitimate questions about whether, if present trends continue, Nato will again be able to sustain the kind of operations we have seen in Libya without the UStaking on even more of the burden.

The trends that Panetta was talking about was most of Nato not paying their way for the defence of the alliance. American officials pointed out that Mattis was having to make the same point again, much more forcefully, this week, six years later.

The issue of money is not something bothering General Haftar at the moment. Russia hasprinted 4bn Libyan Dinars (around $2.8bn) on contract to the Libyan Central Bank which it hastransferred it to his backers in Benghazi. Haftarnow claims that Moscow will enable him to spend the money legitimately by helping to lift the UN arms embargo in place since 2011. Thisallows only the UN-backed GNC administration in Tripoli to bring in weapons with the approval of the UN Security Council Committee.

General Haftar does not lack weapons:a steady,illicitflow comes from the Arab states backing himand his LNA is undoubtedly the most effective non-Islamist force in the country at present. Nato and the EUhad been trying to get the generalto come to an agreement with al-SarrajsGeneral National Council, namely that he retainsmilitary commandwhileacceptingthe civilian administration. Boris Johnson wished earlier this month that Gen Haftar can be persuaded that he can be a big part of the future of Libya but without necessarily having to be a new jefe.

But efforts to this end have been fruitless with General Haftar increasingly empowered by the backing of his international friends. Italian foreign minister Angeleno Afano was due to ask for help on the issue from Sergey Lavrov at a meeting of foreign ministers in Bonn yesterday. But news from there was dominated by the first meeting between Russias foreign minister and Rex Tillerson, Trumps new secretary of state.

It looks increasingly likely that what happens in Libya, as in so much else in the tide of current geopolitics, is likely to be decided by how relations evolve between Trump and Putin;the forming of the new order, with other international players increasingly on the sideline.

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Libya, not Syria, will be the foundation on which Trump and Putin build their new world order - The Independent

Italy probes private migrant aid vessels off Libya – News24

Rome - The fleet of privately-run aid vessels rescuing migrants off the Libyan coast and bringing them to Italy is "of interest" to Italian investigators, a Sicilian prosecutor told AFP on Friday.

Catania prosecutor Carmelo Zuccaro said the boats were not currently suspected of illegal activity but had drawn attention for their sophisticated and expensive operations.

"There is no investigation in progress, for the simple reason that we do not have information any crimes have been committed," the prosecutor said, refuting Italian media reports saying a probe had been opened.

But the working group set up in the Sicilian city in 2013 to look into migrant trafficking added the aid flotilla - boats run by non-profit organizations (NGOs) - to its list of parties of interest last year.

"There is an abnormal proliferation of NGOs operating. I'm not talking about the big, prestigious organisations, but all the small ones that seem to have sophisticated hardware, such as drones," Zuccaro said.

"That's expensive, and we're just looking into who is financing them and why," he added.

The Maltese organisation Moas was the first to launch a private rescue vessel in the summer of 2014.

By last summer close to ten different NGOs, financed mainly through private donations, were taking part in migrant relief operations off Libya.

Those with one or more boats in the area in 2016 included German NGOs Sea Watch, Sea Eye and Jugend Rettet, as well as the Dutch Lifeboat Project, the Spanish Proactiva Open Arms and Moas.

Most of their boats are in currently docked at port for the winter, but the Aquarius - charted by SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) - rescued hundreds of people earlier this month, along with the Golfo Azzuro, run by Proactiva Open Arms.

In a report cited in December by the Financial Times daily, the EU's border control agency Frontex raised the possibility traffickers putting migrants out to sea could be in collusion with the private ships that recover them and bring them to Italy "like taxis".

The allegation was slammed by MSF as "extremely serious and harmful". It said the NGOs were "not the cause but a response" to a humanitarian crisis, and had been forced to act because Frontex was failing to prevent migrant deaths at sea.

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Italy probes private migrant aid vessels off Libya - News24