Eye On Jihadis
On 9 February, the eastern-based interim government aligned with Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) announced the conclusion of military operations in Derna. In a statement, the interim government claimed that terrorists had been completely eliminated from the whole of eastern Libya. On 12 February, the 46 remaining fighters belonging to the Derna Protection Force (formerly the Derna Mujahideen Shura Council) surrendered to the LNA. Amongst those surrendering was Rasheed Abdullah (aka Hafs al-Mauritani, who was the head of the groups “Security Squad” and military commander, and Hafidh al-Dhabea’ (aka Abu Aiyoub).
Over the last week, the following Derna Protection Force members were reportedly killed or their bodies discovered in the Old City of Derna:
- On 6 February, Ahmed Ali al-Zawi.
- On 9 February, Osama Omran Badr.
- On 10 February, Abdul Aziz al-Jibani and Abdel Wahab al-Shaari
- On 11 February, the spokesman of the Derna Mujahideen Shura Council, Mohammad Idris Mansouri, along with five other members including Mohammad Denqou.
- On 12, Essam Sa’ad Mansouri, the last emir of the Derna Branch of Ansar al-Sharia was discovered.
On 8 February, local security forces arrest terrorist suspects Kamel Azzouz and his brother in Misrata. The two are suspected of being members of al-Qaeda. The circumstances around the arrests are unclear at this time
