At least 34 pro-Libyan unity government forces were killed and 100 more injured in clashes with DAESH in the coastal city of Sirte on Tuesday.
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Libyan forces fighting Islamic State in its stronghold of Sirte said on Wednesday that 36 of their men had been killed and almost 150 wounded in the previous day’s clashes, one of the heaviest tolls in their month-long campaign.
The government brigades, a ragbag of fighters from the western city of Misrata, suffered heavy… It took full control of Sirte a year ago, benefiting from a security vacuum and from the political chaos that has roiled Libya since long-time leader Moammar Gadhafi was toppled in an uprising in 2011.
It has also taken a second ISIS ammunitions store.
The clashes took place as the forces aligned with the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) prepared for a final assault on the DAESH stronghold.
IS fighters “are besieged in a small area of Sirte and although they have sought to break out our forces have repelled all attempts”, the statement said.
Media captionHow Islamic State’s religious police operate in the Libyan city of Sirte.
The blast occurred in Garabulli, a town about 60 kilometres to the east of Tripoli, when gunmen stormed the depot belonging to a militia, a security official said.
Most of the causalities, however, resulted from a double-blast that hit an arms depot abandoned by the militia as a result of clashes with locals.
Later, the same militia leader along with his bodyguards attacked a local supermarket as the owner refused to allow them to leave the premises with unpaid grocery which led to full-fledged armed conflict between the militia and the local residents, according to Mr. Al-Soul.
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“There are body parts” at the arms depot, he said, adding the toll could rise.
