The loss of a Night Eagle drone in the Bani Walid area confirms the presence of US forces in this area where IS is thriving

The loss of a Night Eagle drone in the Bani Walid area confirms the presence of US forces in this area where IS is thriving
Version : November 29th, 2018
Number of pages : 7 (750 words)

9,99€

Footage of a US made Night Eagle UAV reportedly crashed in Wadi al-Mardum located 20-30 km eastern Bani Walid appeared on Libyan social media on November 28th. The front part of the drone that contains all the sensors and camera is missing probably destroyed in the crash or removed by its "discoverers". The aircraft has significant cracks on the underside of the fuselage, indicating that the impact on the ground was hard, but not too violent to keep the structure almost intact. The Night Eagle is a US-made UAV based on a modified Boeing Insitu ScanEagle Block E equipped with an infrared camera for night operations. In the past, the Bani Walid area was often targeted by unidentified aircraft. Already, on February 28th, 2016, a convoy of fifteen vehicles was attacked by unidentified aircraft in the Shimikh Valley near Bani Walid, the United States and the LNA denying any involvement in the attacks.

Libya - Weekly situation report 31 May - 6 June

The battle for the liberation of Derna is still going on. Fighting intensified this week. LNA forces have progressed rapidly in several neighbourhoods in the urban area. According to LNA spokesman, 75% of the city has been captured to DPF militants. In southern Libya, armed groups believed to belong to Chadian opposition and Benghazi Defend Brigade attempted to storm Tamanhint airbase in the hand of LNA. LNA and local forces in Brak al-Shati are on high alert after suspicious military movements were reported in the area, to anticipate a possible attack on the military infrastructures by Chadian and other foreign militias. In western Libya, a US Air Force drone carried out an air strike 30 km southern Bani Walid targeting a car and killing four people including Abdul Ati Ashtewi Abustah, one leader of Islamic State in Sirte. Two Sirte residents were killed between Waddan and Zillah by presumed ISIS militants. Many ISIS movements have been reported toward Haruj and Tmassah. In the Oil Crescent area, ISIS members carried out an attack on police station in Qanan.

This report includes :

- Situation in southern Libya

- Situation in eastern Libya

- Situation in western Libya

- Coast guards activities

- Foreign military flights

- Demining activities

3,99€

Libya - Weekly situation report 19-25 April

Despite LNA spokesperson, Ahmed al-Mesmari, announced on Wednesday that Marshall Khalifa Haftar will arrive to Benghazi on Thursday 26th, uncertainties remain about his health and his ability to lead the Libyan National Army in the near future. The coming battle for the liberation of the city of Derna will test the cohesion of this army. Despite the ceasefire, fighting resumed around the city of Sebha. In Tripoli, Mitiga International Airport was shelled again by Bogra militia. In Bani Walid area, the LNA Air Force carried out three air-strikes on a camp occupied by the so-called ‘Benghazi Defence Brigades’ near al-Saddada. In Derna, fighting between LNA and DMSC militants increased.

This report includes : - Situation in southern Libya - Situation in eastern Libya - Situation in western Libya - Coast guards activities - Foreign military flights - Demining activities To access to the full PDF report (1,708 words, 14 pages), please contact Arnaud Delalande

LIBYE – Risques de conflagration dans le Croissant pétrolier

Malgré l’expulsion de l’État islamique (EI) en Libye de Syrte et Benghazi en 2016 déjà, le groupe terroriste a commencé à se réorganiser et a pu attaquer à la fois l’Armée nationale libyenne (ANL – fidèle à l’homme fort de l’est du pays, le maréchal Khalifa Haftar, qui règne à Benghazi) et les milices de Misrata. En mai 2017, le groupe a pris pour cible un convoi appartenant à la Troisième Force de Misrata (une milice controversée soupçonnée de crimes de guerre lors du « massacre de Brak al-Shati », base aérienne du sud-libyen où, le 18 mai 2017, la Troisième Force tua 134 personnes dans les rangs de l’ANL et parmi les civils, plusieurs militaires ayant été tout simplement exécutés).

LIBYE – Risques de conflagration dans le Croissant pétrolier

Despite the expulsion of the Islamic State (IS) in Libya from Sirte and Benghazi the past year, the group started to reorganize and was able to attack both Libya National Army and Misrata militias. In May 2017, the terrorist group targeted a convoy belonging to the Misrata Third Force, a controversial militia suspected of war crimes in the so-called “Brak al-Shati massacre” the same month by killing 134 people in LNA ranks, and among civilians some of them simply executed.

LIBYA – Risks of a conflagration in the Oil Crescent

ISIS Exploits Local Conflict and Moves Back Into Libya

After local forces booted the Libyan branch of Islamic State from Sirte and Benghazi in 2016 and 2017, the terror group reorganized and launched counterattacks targeting both the Libyan National Army and that regime’s rival, the Government of National Accord and associated Misrata militias.

But ISIS’s survival in the region has not motivated the competing regimes in Libya to set aside their differences. An already complex conflict could grow more complex as ISIS again mobilizes in a war-torn country that hasn’t had a single national government since 2011.

ISIS Exploits Local Conflict and Moves Back Into Libya - Rival regimes are too busy fighting each other to oppose the militants

A New Civil War Could Break Out in Libya

A New Civil War Could Break Out in Libya

Fresh fighting would pit the Libyan National Army against the Government of National Accord

by Wolfgang Pusztai and Arnaud Delalande

Beginning in December 2016, the Saraya Defend Benghazi — also known as Benghazi Defense Brigade — an Islamist militia group that formed in June 2016 to oppose Gen. Khalifa Haftar’s Tobruk-based Libyan National Army, was involved in the attack on facilities in Libya’s Oil Crescent.

The LNA decisively repulsed the attacks. But the wider conflict is only deepening — and could spark a new civil war in Libya pitting the two major claimants to the country’s leadership. Haftar and his allies in Tobruk on one side. On the other, the Government of National Accord in Tripoli.

Resource constraints on both sides could head off further fighting — assuming the local allies of both Haftar and the GNA behave themselves.

More infos : A New Civil War Could Break Out in Libya

Libyan National Army MiGs and helicopters blasted convoys attacking the Oil Crescent

On the night of Dec. 6 to 7, 2016, a convoy of around 150 vehicles left Al Jufrah in central Libya and headed toward the country’s sprawling Oil Crescent — specifically, its vital oil terminals. The various armed technicals belonged to the Saraya Defend Benghazi — also known as Benghazi Defense Brigade — an Islamist militia group that formed in June 2016 to oppose the dominant Libyan National Army and its popular leader Gen. Khalifa Haftar. The offensive came just a day after pro-government forces liberated the Islamic State stronghold of Sirte. Members of the Petroleum Facilities Guard — Ibrahim Jadhran’s own armed group — claimed to have joined the convoy, which split into two sections as it approached the Oil Crescent. Not long after, many of the vehicles were wrecked and in flames.

When Militants Attacked Libya’s Oil Region, Regime Aircraft Struck Back Hard