Panoramica dei mezzi d'informazione islamici
It also said that several people had been taken hostage inside the Bardo Museum, which is next to parliament.
A member of parliament told AFP that parliamentary work had been suspended after shots were fired and deputies had gathered in the building’s hall.
A Libyan official says fighting between Islamic State militants and forces loyal to the government based in the country’s capital, Tripoli, has killed 10 troops.
Ismail al-Shukri, says Wednesday’s clashes took place near the town of Nofaliya, close to the country’s main oil terminal overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
It’s the latest in a deadly campaign by IS extremists targeting Libya’s lucrative oil facilities.
The militants have already overrun several oil fields and control the city of Sirte, near Nofaliya.
Al-Shukri says that along with the 10 killed, four troops were wounded in the fighting. The force is a mix of regular and militia troops that answer to the government in Tripoli.
Libya’s political crisis has left the country with two parliaments and two governments, along with rival militaries and militias.
Fighters aligned with the Islamic State who control the Libyan city of Surt have begun clashing with a brigade from the neighboring city of Misurata that is trying to drive them out, according to news reports on Tuesday, and a leading Tunisian militant was killed in the battle.
A new battlefront in Libya emerged last weekend, when fighters loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) clashed with armed groups from the city of Misrata loyal to the Islamist “Libya Dawn” alliance.
After detaining four ISIL fighters in the central coastal city of Sirte, Misratan officials say ISIL erected a checkpoint east of the city on the highway to oil-rich Sidra. While on their way to dismantle it, Misratan forces were ambushed in a deadly firefight.
“We were driving in our cars with our guns ready,” said Faisal Harish, a wounded fighter from his hospital bed in Misrata. He is part of Brigade 166, which was deployed to Sirte to address the ISIL threat. “There were at least a hundred that attacked us from the side of the road.”
Misratan forces from the Libya Dawn alliance arrived on Saturday to seal off the highway leading into Sirte from both the east and west, and to reinforce their military clout along its southern edge.
The Misratan officials estimated that around 500 ISIL fighters are inside Sirte, the hometown of toppled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his small Gaddafa tribe.
On Sunday, ambulances and fighters in pickup trucks, loaded with weapons, massed along the road next to the western front line.
Armed men at checkpoints were turning back the few civilian cars trying to enter the tense and dangerous city. “A group of ex-Gaddafi loyalists are in there with Daesh,” explained Adel Ben Guzy, the military leader for Brigade 166, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.
So far, six Misratan troops have been killed, with dozens more wounded. Misratan officials estimate that up to 25 ISIL fighters were killed, with many more wounded or taken prisoner.
Seventeen bodies of ISIL fighters were flown to a morgue in Misrata for investigation. However, ISIL fighters have taken control of Sirte’s Ibn Sina hospital, making it difficult to track ISIL casualties.
On Monday morning, the conflict came to Misrata, 240 kilometres west of Sirte, when ISIL claimed responsibility for a deadly explosion outside the Brigade 166 headquarters killing one person.
ISIL is a new phenomenon in Libya, exploiting the power vacuum following the violent overthrow of Gaddafi in 2011.
Now, two different governments – one based in Tripoli, the other in Tobruk – claim the right to rule Libya, while militias and armed tribesmen continue to feud over power and the country’s resources.
In January, ISIL managed to shock a nation numbed to constant violence by carrying out a high-profile attack at the luxurious Corinthian hotel in Tripoli in January, and by the videotaped beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians on a Libyan beach.
Fighters pledging their allegiance to ISIL’s self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, entered Sirte more than one month ago.
However, so far only the ISIL group in Derna, long a stronghold of Islamists who resisted Gaddafi at home and sent many fighters to Afghanistan and Iraq, has been recognised by al-Baghdadi.
ISIL fighters have capitalised on disorder within hardline Islamist armed group Ansar al-Sharia, following the death of their Benghazi branch leader in January.
Mohamed al-Zahawi had been part of Libya Dawn’s fight against General Khalifa Haftar’s “Dignity” forces and Libya’s Tobruk-based government.
Brigade 166 was posted to Sirte’s outskirts soon afterwards, to expel ISIL from government buildings and
checkpoints. Powerful local tribes urged Brigade 166 to do this peacefully.
Haftar – along with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and western countries – have condemned Libya Dawn’s approach of ‘containing’ ISIL rather than directly attack them. Haftar accused Libya Dawn of complicity with ISIL.
According to many Misratan military and civil leaders, Sirte is considered a more manageable security threat than battling Haftar.
They claimed that those fighting under the ISIL banner include former Gaddafi supporters, criminals and foreign fighters, who could be dealt with after the battle of Sidra was settled.
But now, the Misratan forces are stretched thin. Libya Dawn is embroiled in battles against Haftar’s forces in Benghazi, in Sidra, and in Libya’s west and south as well.
“We are against terrorists in all forms, but not to do it Haftar’s way, which is to destroy a city and make families flee, all to end a couple hundred terrorists,” Ismael Shukri, a spokesman for forces allied with Libya Dawn, told Al Jazeera last week before the clashes with ISIL.
Shukri was alluding to the destruction in Benghazi resulting from the gruelling fight between Libya Dawn and Dignity forces there.
“We need to finish this now,” said Ali Abusetta, a member of Misrata’s city government bound for Brussels next week to attend the next round of United Nations-brokered talks between local Libyan officials. In his opinion, the biggest threat Libya faces is from Haftar – not from ISIL.
“The ISIL car bomb outside [Brigade] 166 on Monday was a message to make Misratans feel afraid. We are not sure if it will become a big problem,” said Abusetta.
“The families are behind us, but we are tired,” he sighed. “We want to stop the fighting and have a dialogue without blood.”
The city of Misrata has announced a nigh time curfew in an attempt to consolidate security in the city.
In an announcement by its city council today, it announced a series of emergency security measures including the rising of the security alert in the city to the status of ‘’high’’.
The curfew will be effective from 12 midnight until 7 am.
The measures include strict control cars without number plates or with tinted windscreens. Committees have also been formed to conduct a census of migrants in the city.
It will be recalled that a car bomb exploded outside the base of a Misratan militia 166 on Sunday killing at least one. The action was believed to be in retaliation by IS for Misratan militias activities in Sirte.
L’“eccessiva” polarizzazione politica della Libia sarà risolta solo attraverso il dialogo nazionale, ha sostenuto l’inviato delle Nazioni Unite in Libia, Tarek Mitri, al Consiglio di Sicurezza a New York
Detailing the continuing downward security spiral in his latest briefing on Libya today, the Special Representative of the Secretary General said that although the new Transitional Justice Law approved last week by Congress and yesterday’s freeing of four Bani Walid leaders by Zawia were positive contributions to the process of establishing the rule of law and achieving national reconciliation, there had to be a single reconciliation process to defuse the polarisation that was so damaging to the country.
Dialogue had to involve all the parties and the main armed groups, Mitri stated, especially given that there were doubts “about how comprehensive or lasting” the decisions of some militias to quit Tripoli would be.
For its part, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) was actively helping facilitate a number of national dialogue initiatives, he said.
One major difficulty he noted was the ability of some groups in Libyan to misunderstand events, pointing the problems following the announcement that the UN was sending a 235-strong to provide protection for its staff in Libya.
It had been presented in some quarters as evidence of international intervention, he said, and both the UN and the Libyan authorities had been forced to explain and “ state the obvious”. It would not be the last time this happened, he suggested to Security Council members.
“We will have to spare no effort in dispelling misinterpretations and suspicions, no matter how unjustified they may seem, and reaffirming the role of the UN support mission in Libya, committed to the full respect of its national sovereignty.”
On the issues of arms control and the elimination of supplies of mustard gas and uranium fissile material, known as yellowcake, Mitri announced that an inspection team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would be visiting Libya this month” to verify existing stockpiles and conditions of storage”.
He indicated ongoing concerns about the yellowcake, 6,400 barrels of which were stored “in a non-functional former military facility close to Sebha”.
A team from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was also expected this month to observe the destruction of the mustard gas “in line with Libya’s obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention”.
As for man-portable surface-to-air missiles (MANPADS), the UN envoy said that UNSMIL had asked the Libyan authorities for more documentation on those under their control.
Source Libya Herald
Nonostante le cupe prospettive politiche e le profonde differenze tra i leader rivali del paese, gli analisti si aspettano un accordo “last-minute” a livello regionale e internazionale per favorire l’elezione di un nuovo capo di Stato nel prossimo maggio 2014.
Altri esperti invece escludono qualsiasi intervento straniero nel voto presidenziale, affermando che le potenze regionali e internazionali sono troppo occupate con le turbolenze nella guerra in Siria per far fronte alla crisi libanese.
Il Libano è entrato così nell’anno elettorale presidenziale, tra avvertimenti di gravi conseguenze per la stabilità del Paese, se un nuovo presidente non venisse eletto in tempo.
Next year’s presidential battle is deemed crucial for the country’s stability, as Lebanon faces tough security challenges and deep national divisions threatening its unity caused by the ramifications of the 32-month war in Syria.
The presidential vote comes as the country has been left without a functioning government for over eight months and a paralyzed Parliament has been unable to meet due to a lack of quorum.
The latest warning was issued Tuesday by Speaker Nabih Berri, who said that failure to elect a new president would destroy Lebanon given the paralysis in the Cabinet and Parliament.
“All lawmakers must attend the [Parliament] session to elect a new president, even those traveling abroad,” Berri said in remarks published by Al-Joumhouria newspaper. “In light of the vacuum in government and a crippled Parliament, if we fail to elect a new president we would be destroying the country.”
Hisham Jaber, a retired Lebanese Army general, ruled out the possibility of the country falling into a presidential vacuum, predicting a deal between regional and international powers just in time to facilitate the election of a new president.
“I don’t see the country slipping into a constitutional vacuum because I expect a last-minute regional and international deal to facilitate the election of a new president,” Jaber, director of the Middle East Center for Political Studies and Research, a Beirut-based think tank, told The Daily Star.
Jaber said last month’s deal between Iran and Western powers over Tehran’s nuclear program would definitely help in facilitating the presidential election in Lebanon despite Saudi rage over the deal.
“Certainly, Saudi Arabia, which felt disappointed with the Iran nuclear deal, is capable of obstructing the presidential vote in Lebanon through its [March 14]. But the Americans would intervene to exert pressure on the Saudis to prevent any obstruction,” he said.
“Logic says that an American-Iranian rapprochement will serve stability in the Gulf region, something which Saudi Arabia has been working for. But Saudi Arabia feels that its influence in the Gulf region and the Middle East will recede in favor of Iran as a result of the nuclear deal,” Jaber added.
Abdallah Bou Habib, Lebanon’s former ambassador to the U.S., disagreed, ruling out any regional or international intervention in the presidential vote.
“The presidential election is becoming more a Lebanese decision than a regional and international deal. Regional and international powers are too busy with more important issues than the Lebanese presidential election,” Bou Habib told The Daily Star.
Bou Habib, director of the Issam Fares Center for Lebanon, a Beirut-based think tank, said the Big Powers and Saudi Arabia are “indifferent” to the situation in Lebanon.
“The U.S. would like to see stability and a new government formed in Lebanon. This means that they accept any joint Lebanese decision,” he said.
Bou Habib said Lebanon was heading for a presidential vacuum if the four top Maronite leaders – former President Amin Gemayel, MP Michel Aoun, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh – did not convince their Muslim allies to attend a Parliament session to elect a new head of state.
The four, who belong to the rival March 8 and March 14 camps, have long been presidential hopefuls.
“If the four leaders did not act to convince their allies to participate in a Parliament session to elect a new president, we will be going to a presidential vacuum,” Bou Habib said.
The influential Catholic Maronite Church, which had played a key role in the past in supporting candidates to the country’s top post customarily held by a Maronite, has voiced concerns over the possibility of Parliament failing to elect a new head of state.
Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai has repeatedly called for a new president to be elected on time.
President Michel Sleiman’s six-year-term in office expires on May 25. The two-month constitutional period for Parliament to meet to elect a new head of state begins on March 25.
“Patriarch Rai is demanding a president who can salvage Lebanon and who possesses a vision to keep Lebanon away from the fires raging in the region,” Hares Chehab, secretary-general of the Islamic-Christian National Dialogue Committee, told The Daily Star.
Chehab, who represents the Maronite patriarch on the Dialogue Committee, said next year’s presidential election gained special significance “because the country is in a state of stagnation, the future outlook is gloomy and the Lebanese are sharply divided.”
“If the Lebanese fail to unite, the country is heading for ruin,” he said.
He said if a new president was not elected on time, “the country would plunge into a vacuum for a short period during which rival political leaders would act to remedy the situation.”
“A presidential vacuum would cause a very strong shock to the political leaders, who would feel the gravity of the situation, prompting them to act,” Chehab said.
He added that he believed rival political leaders were destined to reach agreement on the presidential election “once they feel that they are in the circle of danger.”
Talal Atrissi, a Lebanese University lecturer with expertise on Iran and the Middle East, said the presidential race had overshadowed divisions over the conflict in Syria and attempts to form a new Cabinet.
“The presidential election is gaining priority these days in light of growing fears that the country might plunge into full vacuum in all constitutional institutions if a new president was not elected on time,” Atrissi told The Daily Star.
With the chances of extending Sleiman’s mandate being ruled out, Atrissi said, Lebanon was faced with two choices: “Either the election of a new president or a constitutional vacuum that would have grave consequences on the already complicated situation under a resigned Cabinet.”
Atrissi said if Lebanese leaders and regional and international powers failed to reach a consensus on the election of a new president, the only option left was for the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance along with MP Walid Jumblatt to nominate a candidate to the country’s top post who would not provoke the rival March 14 camp.
“This option is possible if the Americans exert pressure on Jumblatt,” he said.
Atrissi warned that if for some reason a new president is not elected on time, “ Lebanon is heading for further deterioration at the security, political and economic levels under a resigned Cabinet which is unable to meet.”
Sleiman, who has repeatedly voiced opposition to an extension of his term, said Monday he was confident that a new head of state would be elected on time despite fears that Parliament might not be able to meet to choose a successor to him.
“A strong president is the one who tells the truth, does not appease anyone and is impartial and transparent,” Sleiman said.
Il gruppo terroristico più importante tra quelli basati nel Sinai è Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis – conosciuto anche con il nome Ansar Jerusalem. Ritenuto colpevole di un alto numero di attentati contro le autorità egiziane – bollate come fiancheggiatrici di Israele – e del lancio di razzi contro le città israeliane di confine, il gruppo può contare su un effettivo di circa 800 uomini. La sua azione più eclatante fu quella del 18 agosto 2011, quando un assalto di membri di ABaM a un autobus che trasportava civili causò la morte di otto israeliani e tre membri delle forze di sicurezza egiziane nella città di confine di Eilat.
Il movimento jihadista a inizio mese aveva tentato di assassinare in un attentato il Ministro degli Interni Mohamed Ibrahim, facendo saltare in aria un veicolo mentre il suo convoglio transitava a Nasr City, a Est del Cairo. Nonostante l’attentato non abbia raggiunto il suo scopo, l’azione dimostrò come il gruppo avesse iniziato a prender di mira obiettivi non circoscritti all’area della penisola, ma anche nel resto del Paese. Un comunicato del gruppo, giunto nelle ore successive all’attentato, dichiarava come «il ‘macellaio’ degli Interni» avesse visto «la morte con i suoi due occhi», chiarendo come «ciò che stava per arrivare»sarebbe stato molto peggio. Il comunicato chiamava anche i musulmani di tutto l’Egitto «a raggiungere i loro fratelli mujahideen nella loro guerra contro quei criminali».
L’Onu si prepara ad inviare una squadra di protezione per la sua missione a Tripoli, una mossa che sta innescando delle polemiche in alcuni ambienti libici…
La comunità internazionale é sempre più allarmata per la situazione di disordine interno della Libia. La preoccupazione si è manifestata concretamente la scorsa settimana con l’approvazione, da parte del Consiglio di Sicurezza dell’ONU, di una richiesta presentata dal Segretario generale Ban Ki-Moon, di inviare forze internazionali per proteggere il personale della missione di sostegno delle Nazioni Unite in Libia (UNSMIL).
The Security Council’s president for November, Liu Jieyi, who is also China’s ambassador to the UN, announced that on Wednesday 27 November, the council would send a 235-member special force to Libya to ensure the safety of UN staff and premises because of its lack of confidence in the ability of Libyan security forces to perform this function.
In his earlier letter to the Security Council, Ban Ki-Moon had written that UN staff in Libya are “at high risk of attack” due to worsening tensions and “the lack of reliable national security forces”, necessitating action to provide protection and security for them. The UN secretary-general said that in addition to safeguarding UN premises and staff and assisting in the evacuation of UN personnel and other foreign subjects in Libya, if necessary, a UN protection force could offer necessary support in the face of any attack carried out by extremists opposed to the presence of foreigners in Libya.
In view of the concern and anger that the announcement triggered among some political quarters in Libya, UN officials felt compelled to clarify the nature and purposes of the international security team. The Security Council approval of the request to send a force into Libya was not final, but rather an approval in principle, a UNSMIL statement said. It stressed that the scope of the force’s mission would not extend beyond the walls of the UN premises in Tripoli and that the UN would send an official letter to Libyan authorities notifying them of all the measures that require their necessary approval in accordance with relevant international customs and principles. The statement made no reference to the UN secretary-general’s letter, published by Agence France-Presse, and, specifically, to that portion suggesting that the UN security force could contribute to deterring attacks by extremists.
The Libyan Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation felt compelled to issue a similar clarification. A statement published on the ministry’s website confirmed that the functions of the security team would not extend beyond the walls of UNSMIL premises and that the UN’s request to send a special force falls under the provisions of an agreement previously signed between Libya and UNSMIL. The statement pointed out that other diplomatic missions in Libya have also been granted similar treatment regarding the security and protection of their facilities and personnel.
In like manner, the director of the Foreign Ministry’s press and information bureau stressed that the functions of the UN security team would not extend beyond its assigned tasks and that under the agreement between Libya and the UN, the UN had a right to provide security for its mission in Libya if it feels it necessary.
Libyan security affairs expert Abdallah Masoud was among those who felt that there little cause for concern. “For the UN to send a team to protect its premises is not out of the ordinary,” he told Al-Ahram Weekly. “Foreign embassies also have the right to bring in guard teams from their home countries, on the condition that their tasks and activities do not breach international rules and conventions.”
Masoud pointed out that Libya had little choice in the matter as it still fell under the provisions of Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Nevertheless, he stressed that the UN guards would have to remain inside the premises, should wear civilian dress and should not be drawn from UN peacekeeping forces. He cautioned that if the guards were deployed outside of the premises they were charged with protecting, this would be interpreted as the beginning of another UN intervention in Libya and meet with stiff resistance on the part of Libyans opposed to any foreign security presence in their country.
Eissa Al-Tuweigar, former minister of planning in the interim government, took the occasion to hone in on the performance of UNSMIL itself. The UN mission has not fulfilled many of the tasks that brought it Libya, he said in an interview with the Weekly. While it did help with General National Council (GNC) elections, it was unable to help the GNC keep to the roadmap laid out by the Constitutional Declaration issued in August 2011 by the former Interim National Assembly. Nor could it help the government take the appropriate decisions with regard to how to manage the transitional phase.
Al-Tuweigar holds that UNSMIL and its tasks need to be reviewed. The mission “must provide real services that benefit the people. There is no need for large premises and so many guards,” he said, adding that it might be possible to dispense with UNSMIL altogether if Libyan officials decided to do so.
Like Masoud, Al-Tuweigar was concerned that Libyans might regard the arrival of a UN guard team as a form of foreign intervention, which would jeopardise national security. Nevertheless, he believes that the UN will study the matter closely before proceeding further.
It would appear that Libyan authorities have more than the arrival of a UN guard team to worry about. In a separate development last week, Prime Minister Zeidan announced that the government was under severe economic strains, may not be able to pay civil servant salaries, and might have to borrow in order to meet its financial obligations. He attributed the cash shortage to the 20 per cent drop in oil revenues due to a blockade of oil exporting ports in the central coastal area by advocates of a federalist system in Cyrenaica.
In a press conference earlier this week, Zeidan issued a stern warning to those responsible for the blockade of the oil ports and vowed that his government would “strike with an iron fist” anyone who approaches the oil fields. Backed by a strong current of popular sentiment that is increasingly worried by the growing power of the militias, Zeidan may have a chance to seize control of the ports from the militias and solve the economic crisis.
It therefore comes as no surprise that Libyan Army Chief of General Staffs Abdel-Salam Jadallah Al-Obeidi followed through on Zeidan’s warning with an appeal to the strikers in the oil facilities to end their sit-in unconditionally so that oil could flow into the ports again, enabling the economy to recover.
“The national welfare requires compromise so as to furnish the opportunity for the peaceful transition of authority without a political and security vacuum,” he said.
At the same time, he warned that Libya’s “social fabric, political life and economy were on a precipitous slope” and — referring to the militia threat — cautioned that “the world, which helped Libya during the fight for liberation, would not stand by with its hands tied as it watches the security coup in Libya.”
Meanwhile, in Benghazi, the largest city in eastern Libya, which is rich in oil and natural gas, army forces clashed with a militia group that, according to local residents, belonged to the jihadist Ansar Al-Sharia organisation. It was reported that four died and dozens were wounded in the battle.
On a more encouraging note, the first phase of municipal elections ever to be held in the country kicked off in Beida, Shahat, Al-Marj and Obari. Calm and order prevailed in these cities as citizens cast their votes for the first popularly elected municipal councils after the 17 February 2011 Revolution.
Source http://weekly.ahram.org.eg
Un’intervista ad un alto funzionario dell’intelligence libica rivela che una delle conseguenze inaspettate dell’intervento francese nel Mali -diretto a reprimere la rivolta radicale islamica nel Paese africano, spingendo al al-Qaeda nel Maghreb a spostarsi a nord agli inizi di quest’anno- ha fatto della Libia la principale base del gruppo terroristico nella regione, aumentando l’instabilità di quello che è già un paese precario.
“La Libia è diventata il quartier generale del Qaeda nel Magreb”, ha affermato la fonte dell’intelligence, aggiungendo che solo nelle ultime settimane sono stati aperti tre nuovi campi di al-Qaeda nel sud della Libia.
Il rafforzamento della presenza del gruppo terroristico giunge nel momento in cui la Libia è reso instabile da una serie di minacce – o attacchi – contro obiettivo occidentali.
Three Libyan soldiers and an American teacher working in an international school in Benghazi, Libya have been killed today, Thursday, in a continued rise of violence in the country.
Unknown gunmen shot dead the American teacher as he was doing his morning exercise, according to an eyewitness account who spoke to Reuters.
The three Libyan soldiers were also killed by unknown assailants in different parts of the city as they were on duty or on their way to work.
No one has claimed responsibility as in the case of all other killing incidents in the city.
Another Libyan soldier was shot and wounded and another escaped assassination and succeeded in wounding one of the assassins who were later arrested by the Libyan army and are now under investigation.
Source Tripoli Post
