Impending Arab coalition’s air strikes against « Daesh » targets in Libya

In a statement to “Echorouk”, The spokesman of the Libyan Army, (General Haftar’s wing), Colonel Mohamed Hidjazi, said his forces have rounded up 13 “Daesh” infiltrated terrorists over the past few days in the Zawarah area bordering neighbouring Tunisia.

He thus pointed to the “overwhelming threat” posed by the exactions of (“DAESH”) OR (“ISIL”) terrorist group entrenched in Libya, which is, he said, hindering the country from regaining peace and stability.

He suggested to this effect that that there is all likelihood that Arab military coalition forces were currently planning air strikes against “Daesh” targets inside Libyan territory as part of the counter-terrorism struggle.

However, he noted that the spread of weapons and armed groups – some of which turned to criminal and terrorist behaviour, in addition to those that exploited the situation because of personal interests – has resulted in the spread of chaos in the country and has weakened central authority.

He said that over the past year, Libya has witnessed the emergence of “ISIL”, or “Daesh”, which asserts control over the towns of Derna and Sirte, aiming to secure them as bases from which to impose its will on the rest of the country, in addition to plundering the area’s resources.

Colonel Hidjazi asserted in this regard that his forces were steadily battling the terrorist groups in several areas in Libya but he indicated that the regular forces were lacking weaponry due to the UN Security Council’s crippling arms embargo.

He also affirmed that external powers have been hampering Libya’s attempts at fighting terrorists, including at the UN Security Council, which displayed indecisiveness in approving repeated requests by the Libyan Army to exempt it from the arms embargo.

He added that nefarious terrorist groups such as “Daesh” and “Al-Qaida” look to spread beyond Libya to North Africa, the wider Sahel region and even Europe.

“Therefore, all United Nations members should be aware of the gravity of the position taken by the Security Council… and exercise pressure for the lifting of the arms embargo on the Libyan army, or speed up the approval of applications for exemption from the arms embargo, and provide assistance to the Libyan government in the area of security, according to the provisions of Security Council resolution 22.14“, he further underlined.