BENGHAZI: At least 356 people have been killed in fighting for Libya’s second city Benghazi since the launch of a government-backed offensive against Islamist militias a month ago, medical sources said.
More than 200 of the dead have been soldiers — either members of the regular army or loyalists of controversial retired general Khalifa Haftar, the Red Crescent and hospital sources said.
But civilians are also among the casualties, caught up in the crossfire as troops battle to wrest the eastern city back from the militias that seized it in July.
All of Libya’s three big cities — the capital Tripoli, third city Misrata and Benghazi —are largely under the control of Islamist-led militias. In Benghazi, one of them -- Ansar Al Sharia — is blacklisted by Washington as a terror group for its alleged role in a deadly 2012 attack on the US consulate.
More than three years after dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled and killed in a Nato-backed revolt, Libya is awash with weapons and powerful militias, and run by rival governments and parliaments. AFP
Thousands protest in Spain over Western Sahara
MADRID: Several thousand people demonstrated in Madrid yesterday in support of independence for the disputed territory of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony in northwestern Africa. About 3,000 protesters marched from Atocha railway station to the central Plaza de la Provincia behind a banner declaring “Sahara Free now!”, a photographer said.
Banners from many parts of Spain could be seen at the demonstration which also included live music and street performers dressed in the red, green, black and white of the traditional Saharawi flag. “We believe the Saharawi people have to right to self-determination,” said Jose Taboada, president of the Coordination of Spanish Associations of Solidarity with Western Sahara, which organised the protest and wants the territory to vote on independence.AFP
