TRIPOLI: Libya’s government yesterday announced it was mobilising its security forces after acknowledging for the first time that “terrorist groups” were behind dozens of attacks against security services and Westerners.
Three years after a revolution toppled long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi and left the country awash with guns, near-daily attacks continue unchecked across Libya.
An overnight government statement called on “the international community and in particular the United Nations to provide the necessary support to eradicate terrorism in Libyan cities”.
“The nation finds itself in a confrontation with terrorist groups, and it falls upon the government to mobilise its military and security forces to fight this scourge,” said the statement, published on the government’s website.
“There will be no place for terrorism in Libya... and Libyans must be prepared for such a battle in terms of caution, awareness and sacrifice,” said the statement.
Eastern Libya has become a bastion of Islamist extremists, with authorities until now avoiding a full-blown confrontation with heavily armed former rebels pending the formation of a regular army and police force.
The government indicated it would turn to “the national military force as it is of now” in its fight against terrorism, alluding to pro-government militias that battled Gaddafi’s regime in the 2011 uprising.
The government statement was published after a cabinet meeting held in the southern town of Ghat, two days after a car bomb at a military academy in the restive eastern city of Benghazi left at least seven soldiers dead.
The government said “the cities of Benghazi, Derna and Sirte and others are facing a terrorist war carried out by Libyan and foreign elements with hostile intentions.”
These cities are strongholds of extremists such as the jihadist group Ansar Al Sharia, which was placed on the US terror list in January.
Ansar Al Sharia is suspected of waging attacks against judges and security forces, but also of being behind attacks on Western interests such as a 2012 assault on the US consulate in Benghazi that killed the ambassador and three other Americans.
AFP
