6-13 June: Misratan entities unite against BDB

Jun 14, 2017 | Other Jihadi Actors

On 7 June, the Misrata Municipal Council issued a statement banning the Benghazi Defence Brigades (BDB) from re-entering Misrata city with their weapons and demanding that the BDB hand over individuals implicated in terrorism to state authorities. On 6 June, leaders of the GNA-aligned, Misratan-led al-Bunyan al-Marsus Operations Room, the Misrata Military Council and the Municipal Council joined forces to order BDB units positioned at the Baghla junction, located on the road south of Abu Grein, to disband, surrender their weapons and handover their leader, Mustafa al-Sharksi. The Misratans said they would use force against the BDB if the ultimatum was ignored.

On 9 June, another video was released depicting Captain Mahmoud al-Werfalli, a hardliner Salafist commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Special Forces (Saiqa), ordering the execution of four prisoners. The prisoners are shown being shot by masked men assumed to be members of Werfalli’s unit. Despite Werfalli’s televised resignations and the accusations of war-crimes leveled at him by local and international actors, he was promoted from Captain to Major by commander general Wanis Bukhamada. On 12 June, the LNA took over the Libyan Shield base in the jihadist-controlled Souq al-Hout district in central Benghazi. One LNA fighter was killed, while the commander of the Souq al-Hout front Col. Hakim al-Zway was injured.

On 9 June, the LNA said its Omar al-Mukhtar Operations Room in Derna carried out a series of ‘rapid’ tactical operations against the Derna Mujahedeen Shura Council (DMSC), without air support. The LNA spokes person said three raids were conducted against a media/information centre, a police checkpoint, and a clothes factory on the east coast road, reportedly used as an arms and munitions store by the DMSC. LNA sources report that 3 DMSC fighters were killed in the raids. However this could not be verified and local sources report that no LNA raids took place and no-one was killed.