Saturday, August 16, 2014

Libya Updates August 16 , 2014 -- Ironic that Libya's Parliament , Iraq's new Prime Minister and and the Governor of Anbar Province , Syria Rebels ( moderate FSA ) all crying out for US air strikes now ...... US is not the cop on the block for the world , we can't be unpaid mercenaries for dysfunctional nation states.....

Libya Herald......

Air strikes directed at militias not agreeing to ceasefire – Deputy HoR President

By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 19 August 2014:
Those who carried out the air strikes early yesterday morning targeted the parties that did not agree to a cease fire, said Abubaker Baera the First Deputy President of the House of Representatives (HoR).
Baera did not elaborate as to who he thought might have been responsible for the air strikes carried out in the early hours of Monday morning. However, the implication and tone of his comments did not give the impression that he objected to the air strikes. He certainly did not condemn it.

More missiles fall on Tripoli residential areas – in defiance of air strikes

By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 19 August 2014:
Despite, and it seems, in spite of the "precise" air strikes carried out by air craft from unknown origins in the early hours of Monday, missiles continued to fall on residential areas of Tripoli overnight.
As if in open defiance of the air raids, deemed to be of non-Libyan origin by Libya's Chief of Staff , the perpetrators of indiscriminate shelling of residential areas continued with a barrage of about 20 missiles heard by Libya Herald at between 9-11 pm Monday seemingly being fired from the Hadba/Bu Sleem area.

Tripoli bombings not carried out by Libyan aircraft: General Chief of Staff

By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 18 August 2014:
Air raids carried out last night over Tripoli on the positions of Misratan-led forces could not have been made by Libyan warplanes the General Chief of Staff has said.
In a statement made this afternoon the leader of the armed forces, Major General Suleiman Obeidi, said no Libyan-based force had the technology nor the capacity to carry out the attacks.
Obeidi said the missiles, one of which had been identified as a US made Mark 83 general purpose bomb, could only have been dropped using in-flight targeting technology, unavailable to the Libyan Airforce. He added that the weapons had been used with extreme precision and had hit only the Grad missiles and howitzers they were intended to destroy.
Obeidi explained similarly that there was no Libyan airforce based inside the country with the necessary range to carry out the bombings over Tripoli. He said aircraft travelling from the east to Tripoli would have been forced to refuel in mid-air, a feat which was again beyond the capabilities of Libyan airforce either during the time of the former regime or now.
The military has squashed the rumour that the warplanes could have left from Wattayah airbase near the western border. Obeidi said its runaway had been completely demolished and was still under repair. As if this were not enough of a reason, he also explained that the airbase’s refuelling facilities were currently out of action.
Experienced pilots on the ground at the time of this morning’s attack said they believed the two planes, airforce jets, to have been between eight to seven kilometres in the air at the time of the bombing.
No one has, as of yet, claimed responsibility for the attack. An airforce source told the Libya Herald that he suspected Egyptian or Algerian involvement in the air strikes prior to this later announcement.

Tweets...





 Retweeted by 
 1h
This is mad- heard multiple air strikes for hours,yet no one knows who owns the planes,what was hit&what they want.Government silent


 1h


Grand plan of greater Israel in collusion with Libyan and American leaders. Always Muslims being targeted.


 1h
Unidentified jets (likely Egypt or US jets) bombed several parts of Libya capital for hours


 1h
Here's the fun part: the capital has barely any real jihadist militia,but mostly moderate Islamist types from Misrata and locals




http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/libyan-clashes-continue-despite-truce-calls-2014817211235808860.html


Libyan clashes continue despite truce calls

Rival militias trade gunfire and shells in capital Tripoli, ignoring international appeals for a ceasefire.

Last updated: 17 Aug 2014 21:43

The UN says the continued fighting poses a serious threat to Libya's political process [AFP]
Libyan factions have traded gunfire and shells in various parts of Tripoli, ignoring international appeals for a ceasefire to end more than a month of fighting.
Militias from the city of Misrata and fighters of Zintan have wrestled for control of the capital in the worst clashes since the NATO-backed uprising in 2011.
Gunfire and shelling could be heard near the airport and other parts of Tripoli though the day on Sunday, but the fighting was less fierce than on Saturday when much of the city was a battlefield.
The battles have forced the United Nations and Western governments to evacuate their diplomats, fearing Libya is sliding into civil war.
The UN Mission in Libya said in a statement that it "deeply regrets that there was no response to the repeated international appeals and its own efforts for an immediate ceasefire."
"The Mission warns that the continued fighting poses a serious threat to Libya's political process, and to the security and stability of the country," the UN said.
Battle over airport
Most of the fighting has raged over the international airport in Tripoli, which fighters from Zintan have controlled since sweeping into the capital during the 2011 war.
Libya's fragile government still has no national army and often put former rebels on the state payroll as semi-official security forces as a way to co-opt them into the new state.
But the heavily armed rival brigades are allied with competing political factions and are often more loyal to their region, city or local commanders than to the central government.
A separate battle in the eastern city of Benghazi has complicated Libya's security, with an alliance of Islamist fighters and ex-rebels forcing the army out of the city.
A group of Islamists in Benghazi including Ansar al-Sharia issued a statement on Sunday rejecting the idea of democracy and secular political parties in Libya.
"We don't fight for the sake of democracy...but for God and to defend the land", the statement said.









Libya Herald....

Friday demonstrations for and against HoR – again marred by gunfire

By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 16 August 2014:
Yesterday's Martyr Square demonstration in central Tripoli were again, and for the second successive Friday, marred by the use of gunfire.
The demonstrations, by both pro and anti House of Representatives (HoR) supporters, from what could be discerned, went off smoothly right up to the end. The anti HoR supporters seemed to be the bigger of the two demonstrations.
There were pro and anti HoR demonstrations in Benghazi, Misrata, Zawia, Ghirian, Sabha, Beida, Shahat and Sabrata too.
However . . .

Heavy artillery bombardment rains down on parts of Tripoli

By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 16 August 2014:
Yesterday's demonstrations seem to have given the anti House of Representatives (HoR) bloc of militias, attacking the pro HoR bloc of militias' defensive positions within Tripoli, a renewed impetus overnight - as a rain of falling heavy artillery could be heard right across Tripoli.
It seems that the continued national and international calls for a ceasefire and dialogue persist on being ignored, including yesterday's renewed call by the Europeans.
Reports of this morning's fighting indicate that . . .

Fighting restarts in Benghazi after relative calm

By Noora Ibrahim.
Benghazi, 16 August 2014:
Clashes between Ansar Al-Sharia and Operation Dignity forces resumed in earnest again in Benghazi on Thursday after weeks of relative calm.
There were heavy rocket exchanges in the city’s Leithi district and near the sprawling 17 February Brigade camp in the centre of the city. There have also been unconfirmed reports of bombing by planes not belonging to Libyan Airforces and believed to be foreign. The targets were the Islamist stronghold of Guwarsha and the Ansar Al-Sharia checkpoint at Guwarsha gate.
Benghazi had, with the exception of some sporadic violence and occasional airstrikes, been quieter in recent weeks following a major offensive by Islamist forces at the end of Ramadan.
Yesterday in the city there was a limited to protests called both in support of and against the new parliament, scheduled to be held outside Tibesti Hotel and in Tahrir Square respectively.
The demonstration in opposition to the House of Representatives has been announced by Benghazi’s Revolutionary Council, the coalition of the city’s Islamist brigades.


http://www.juancole.com/2014/08/intervention-premier-parliament.html



The Appeal of Intervention: New Iraqi Premier, Libyan Parliament ask for Int’l Troops


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In Libya, the country ironically was capable of pulling off parliamentary elections even though it seems incapable of achieving national order amid militia faction-fighting. The newly elected parliament is dominated by nationalists who reject political Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood. But on the ground in Benghazi and Misrata (and thence Tripoli), fundamentalist militias dominate entire neighborhoods. Fighting between the nationalist Zintan militia and the fundamentalist Misrata one in the capital of Tripoli last month destroyed Tripoli airport and many nice two-year-old passenger jets.
Parliament had to meet in the eastern city of Tobruk, near Egypt, because the capital of Tripoli was too insecure. On meeting, they passed a resolution asking for the United Nations to intervene in their deteriorating security situation. They also gave the militias an ultimatum to disband or join the army and submit to a chain of command, by next December. How exactly the weak parliamentarians huddling in a frontier city, exiled from their own capital, will make the militiamen join the army is entirely unclear.
What the UN will do about this request is anyone’s guess. UN “blue helmets” are typically deployed as peace-keepers after a conflict dies down, not as war-fighters.
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