August 9-15: Misratan power brokers and senior BM figures travelled to Qatar

Aug 16, 2017 | Other Jihadi Actors

On 13 August, a delegation of Misratan power brokers and senior BM figures, including financial powerbroker Abdul Hamid Dbaiba, as well as the spokesperson for the GNA’s Ministry of Defence, Mohammed al-Ghosri, travelled to Qatar to meet with Qatari officials. Media reports from the meeting on August 14, indicate that Qatar is prepared to support the BM’s military operations in addition to providing logistical support. The visit comes in tandem with reports that BM units escorted a team of Italian military and security advisors to Sirte’s al-Qardabiyah airport on 12 August to assess ‘reconstruction’ and rehabilitation requirements for the destroyed military airbase

The conflict between the Libyan National Army (LNA) and the Derna Mujahadeen Shura Council (DMSC) deescalated slightly last week when the LNA’s Omar Mukhtar Operations Room slightly eased the full siege it enacted on the city two weeks ago. According to the LNA spokesperson, no one is allowed to enter the city but the LNA is allowing urgent supplies of medicine and oxygen cylinders into the city, while ambulances were being allowed out to refuel and residents are allowed to leave the town.

On 10 August, the LNA launched airstrikes targeting a DMSC munitions depot in western Derna. The airstrikes reportedly destroyed the depot and the weapons it held and killed at least three DMSC fighters, according to the Libyan news agency LANA