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LIBYA’S ELECTED PARLIAMENT has branded as “terrorists” the Islamist militias which announced their seizure of Tripoli airport after a weeks-long battle and are challenging its legitimacy.
“The groups acting under the names of Fajr Libya (Lbyan Dawn) and Ansar al-Sharia are terrorist groups and outlaws that are rising up against the legitimate powers,” parliament said in a statement issued on Saturday night.
The parliament, which sits in Tobruk, 1,600 kilometres east of the capital, said it was determined to deal with the challenge through the regular armed forces.
Islamist militias
Fajr Libya is a coalition of Islamist militias, mainly from Misrata, east of the capital, while Ansar al-Sharia, which Washington also brands a terrorist group, controls around 80 percent of the eastern city of Benghazi.
“These two groups are a legitimate target of the national army, which we strongly support in its war to force them to halt their killings and hand over their arms,” MPs said.
Fajr Libya said Saturday it had captured Tripoli’s battered international airport from nationalist militiamen.
The announcement came a day after an unidentified warplane raided Islamist positions around the airport, killing 13 fighters, a Fajr Libya spokesman said.
The fall of the airport would be a major defeat for the nationalist fighters from Zintan, southwest of Tripoli, who have held it since the overthrow of long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
TV station attacked
Earlier today, Islamist militiamen attacked the Tripoli studios of private television station Al-Assima which supports the Zintan nationalists and kidnapped its crew, the station said.
Al-Assima, in a news bulletin, said equipment was destroyed and the crew went missing.
On the political front, the outgoing provisional General National Congress (GNC), which was dominated by Islamists, was to resume operations at the request of Fajr Libya, despite being superseded by parliament, its spokesman said.
The airport 30 kilometres south of the Libyan capital, has been shut since July 13 because of the deadly clashes between the Islamists and the Zintan force.
Fajr Libya on Saturday accused the United Arab Emirates and Egypt of involvement in the Friday night air raid.
The Islamist fighters charged that Libya’s provisional government and parliament were “accomplices” to the raid and had lost their legitimacy.
Egypt, whose leadership is fiercely anti-Islamist, denied any role in the air raid.
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Why don’t we just get NATO and the ‘West’ to go in there and sort it out. Oh wait, they did that already, I forgot.
That’s right, I remember now, they went in to Libya on ‘humanitarian’ grounds because they thought Benghazi was going to bombarded by air strikes. They turned a country that was the envy of Africa with free world professional health care and education and turned it into another Somalia with a failed state and warlords competing for their patches.
Great job NATO and the West.
Now, I don’t seem to remember the Western papers and TV and radio etc lambasting Western Governments and NATO for such an abysmal job in Libya. Mind you I don’t remember the Western media machine getting into a frenzy when Benghazi was actually attacked by airstrikes from military jets by the General the CIA and the US are backing. Hmm….
Now, where are all those people who say we have a free press and say our journalists/editors have not been bought off or print what their corporate paymasters want.
Comment of the week
Well said Horgay.
Kevin, don’t be so naive in supporting Horgay. He supports brutal dictatorships.
Declan I support the comment. Don’t know who he/she is or any of their views.
Horgay
Seems to me your trying to make out that Gaddafi was a good guy. Are you sure about that? Why don’t you mention that he would visit schools to pick out children to rape, he killed anybody that stood up against his regime. Is responsible for a lot of the innocent civilians killed in Northern Ireland. Why not talk about the Lockerbie bombing??
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1bytzx_mad-dog-inside-the-secret-world-of-muammar-gaddafi-part-i_shortfilms
@john bissett
I saw the documentary on BBC 4 on Easter Sunday. Some of the crimes that Gaddafi committed are too horrific to be mentioned on this forum.
Gaddafi belongs in the same category as Brendan Smyth and Jimmy Savile.
@ciaran
Even thought the 2 you mentioned are S#um Gaddafi made them look like choir boys, He was evil to the highest order.
Let’s not forget that Libya was the most censored nation on the Middle East and Africa. Plus he deliberately weakened the army to prevent a coup. If things were so good in his country well then why was there a civil war??
Here’s a novel idea: stay the hell out of the internal affairs of other countries, and maybe skewed nutty takes on religion such as these +/ IS/AQ wouldn’t be springing up all over the place.
The muscular arm of liberalism -neoconservatism/neoliberalism, demands it must export “freedom”. They simply believe that once you give someone democracy he/she will magically turn into a hamburger chomping, sports watching Amerikun. Watch them make excuses now and blame their *lack* of bombs dropped.
These nutty takes were pretty much the standard for most of Islam’s history before modernization changed the Middle East.
Everything they do is mandated by precedent.
Lets all stay out of these places. I love hearing this. There is no such thing as an internal war. It creates destabilising effects outside of the country thats involved. History would have had a much different outcome had the US taken that attitude in WW1 & WW2 & other conflicts. The other statement that makes me laugh is “there’s a lot to be said for dictators” says anyone that has never had to live under a dictator. Many people with true expertise in these areas have predicted that islamists & jihadists had the type of war thats going on now in mind for many years. This is no different than the inquisition because islam is going through that phase. Christopher Hitchens warned that if these jihadists were not faced down we would be fighting them on our doorstep. They believe in an existance of an islamic caliphate as dictated by the prophet. A human being who flew off to heaven on a winged horse. These people a credulous lunatics. They can be fought now or on the streets of Europe later. Thats the decision that has to be made. I do believe that mistakes have been made in US & UN policies but have no doubt these are not the reason for the attitudes of these jihadists. Their attitudes have always been the same.
It definitely isn’t the reason for their attitudes, but it is likely the cause behind the rapid growth and increasing activity of these groups over the last ten years. It fuelled their fire
Gadafi and Sadam kept Islam in check. This cult needs destroying. We should be starting here our own ISIS fans in the Clonskeagh Mosque. At least one of them is locked up in Egypt
If even al Qaeda is keeping its distance from IS then I highly doubt the Muslim Brother are fans of them
Danny, Al Qaeda are IS, ISIS, ISIL. It’s the same group, same flag same US funding.
A lot to be said for dictators in that part of the world. Gadaffi, Sadam Hussein, Tito, Nasser.
It mush be the heat that’s driving the lot of then bonkers.
Must
What is interesting about them is that they were all quite western, they were modernizers etc, believed in women going to college and working etc.
They were mostly nuts as well, maybe exclude Nasser from that.
The rise in Islamic militancy is from this time, when the modern world began encroaching.
One thing that drove the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder was seeing the way women carried on in America in the 50′s.
He could see that creeping in in Egypt.
As long as the problems of these troubled places dont become our problems let them at it
They become our problems, when so called new Irish decide to travel to these places to do Jihad and then get feted on Tubridy upon there return
Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth…….
Alan.
Have you heard of Oil?
Mass immigration from an area with little water and food but rocketing populations.
This is very much on Europe’s door.
Libya under Clonal Gaddafi VS Libya “Liberated” by the United States.
Certain cultures and countries on this planet are only happy when they are exterminating those who do not agree with their idea of democracy, or their doctrine. The innocent victims of the despots who preside over such psychopathic warring are helpless. However I grow more confused every day over the identities of those who should answer for the root cause of same. Does the true blame lie in the west?
No but Israel’s crazy for fighting these crazies.
Israels crazy for shorting eight year old children in the back and paramedics trying to do their job.
* shooting
Meanwhile warplanes possibly Egyptian have just bombed Tripoli, and the Syrians have sent rockets into Israel – Golan heights! things are really getting messed up.
Well done to the liberators, UN, NATO, USA
They should give them another country right next door fully armed and HOPE they don’t get attacked.
If they do this to their own people imagine what they would do to the only infidel country(Israel) if they could get in.
It is kind of Ironic that James Foley was a key propagandist in sparking the ILLEGAL U.S. air invasion of Libya in 2011.
it was also through an alleged kidnapping back then
If he was kidnapped two years ago in Syria by the same moderate rebels that Obama has been funding nothing at all makes any sense of the official story.
Frank, once again you are being despicable with your comments. Are you saying that his kidnapping was fake.
With all the lies, deception and propaganda that has been thrown at us from the West over Syrian Rebels AKA ISIS which are two of the one, very little is credible from US Mainstream Media….
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