Algeria mobilizes 10 Army battalions to beef up preventive “security shield” along border with Libya

The High Command of the National Popular Army has decided to further bolster the already-effective security apparatus all along the Algerian-Libyan border in a bid to check any infiltrations by terrorist groups into Algerian territory.

Well-informed sources told Echorouk that ten battalions of ANP forces backed by armoured vehicles as well as by a large batch of special National Gendarmerie forces have been rushed to the border regions along the Libyan border.

The move is designed to face up to any untoward contingency in the wake of intelligence reports suggesting unusual movements of suspected terrorist elements close to the common border inside Libya itself.

In view of this disquieting turn in events resulting from the volatile situation now gripping Libya, Algeria has decided to close its embassy and its consulate in Tripoli because of a “real and imminent threat” to its diplomats, the foreign ministry announced on Friday.

The decision was taken in coordination with the Libyan authorities, after information was received “about the existence of a real and imminent threat targeting Algerian diplomats and consular staff.”

The ministry said the “temporary measure” was “dictated by the difficult security conditions” in Libya, while emphasizing Algeria’s support for the authorities in Tripoli and their “ongoing efforts to foster the rule of law and establish peace and security throughout the country.”

Libya has suffered a series of attacks on its leaders and foreign diplomats in the increasingly restive country, three years after Nato-backed rebels ended Muammar Qadhafi’s four-decade dictatorship.

The Jordanian ambassador Fawaz Aitan was seized in April by masked gunmen as he was being driven to work in Tripoli. They shot at his car and wounded his driver.

Fawaz Aitan was freed and flown home on Tuesday in an exchange for a Libyan Jihadist jailed in Jordan for plotting bomb attacks. Diplomats in Tripoli say militias which fought to topple Qadhafi in 2011 often carry out kidnappings to pressure foreign governments into releasing Libyans held abroad.

Libya’s central government has struggled to assert its control over the vast, mostly desert country, which is awash with heavy weapons and effectively ruled by a patchwork of former rebel militias.

In March 2014, the authorities acknowledged for the first time the existence of “terrorist groups”, particularly in Benghazi but also elsewhere in the east.

Since the 2011 uprising that ousted Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s central government has been fragile and unable to impose its authority on brigades of heavily armed former rebels and extremist groupings.

With its own troops still in training, Libya’s army is still no match for heavily-armed militias who have taken over some oil facilities, stormed parliament and last year even kidnapped a prime minister from a Tripoli hotel to make demands on the state.