By Libya Herald Staff
Tripoli, 15 March 2015:
Misratan Libya Dawn forces claim to have killed 17 Islamic State fighters and lost two . . .[restrict]of their own, in yesterday’s fierce battles in Sirte.
Details are confused but the fighting appears to have started after IS units set up a checkpoint on the coastal highway in the eastern section of the town.
A Misratan unit sent to investigate came under fire and a battle then developed. Misrata’s 166 brigade has been positioned guarding roads leading into the town for some weeks, after IS announced its presence in Sirte, draping black flags from public buildings and taking over the radio station.
A spokesman for Libya Dawn’s Al-Shorooq force told the media that battles had continued throughout the day. He said that Dawn forces had taken several IS fighters prisoner and had sent them back to Misrata.
Photographs on social media showed Misratan fighters in armed jeeps battling in the town.
One Misrata source told Libya Herald that its forces had killed and captured several IS foreign fighters, but gave no details of their nationality. He said the prisoners would be questioned back in Misrata.
In recent months IS forces have established bases in Sirte, Derna and Nawfilya, a small settlement south-east of Sirte. In February IS in Sirte posted images showing the execution of 21 Christians, 20 from Egypt, apparently on the Sirte shoreline. Egypt launched retaliatory air strikes. Earlier this month gunmen, believed to be IS, beheaded 8 Libyan guards and kidnapped 9 foreign hostages from Al-Ghani oilfield, south east of Sirte.
Yesterday’s clashes bring to an end a tacit ceasefire between Libya Dawn forces outside the town and IS units within. Several journalists who visited the area this month reported that Misratan units maintain checkpoints around the town. However, IS units are inside, holding sites including the central Ouagadougou conference hall, from which a black IS flag has been draped.
Libya Dawn said it had previously held back from a direct assault on the town for fear of civilian casualties. It also seems to be concerned about its military capacity being overstretched, by involvement in the stalled attack on Sidra and deployments to the south at Sebha and to the west of Tripoli. [/restrict]
