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By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 31 May 2015:
In a further blow . . .[restrict]to attempts to contain and crush the Islamic State (IS) in Libya, elders in the town of Harawa are said to be negotiating its surrender to it. According to an unnamed Harawa resident, the town, 70 kilometres east of Sirte, itself now fully controlled by IS since Misratan forces were forced to withdraw last week, would be handed over either today or tomorrow.
Harawa has been an IS target for the past fortnight. On 14 May, it attacked the town, beheading two young men in revenge for the death in March of one of the its commanders, Ahmed Rouissi, (also know as Abu Zakaria Al-Tunsi) who was killed in clashes near the town involving Harawa fighters. At the time, the terrorists swore that they would avenge his death. A week later there was an IS suicide bomb on the eastern approaches to the town.
The Harawa source said IS had demanded LD 2 million as “blood money” for 23 of their men who died in the March clashes but had accepted LD 500,000 because the town had been unable to gather such a large sum.
IS had also demanded that the town’s men who fought against it hand over all their weapons, “repent” of their actions and ask forgiveness, the source added, adding that IS claimed it had the names of all those from Harawa who had taken up arms against it.
It also has demanded that the town promise not to respond if and when it kills Mohamed Al-Zadima, one of the commanders of Misrata’s 166 Brigade, which has been at the forefront of efforts to destroy IS in and around Sirte.
Zadima, like most residents in Harawa is a member of the Awlad Sulaiman tribe.
With Harawa in IS hands, it would mean that an area stretching from the power station 20 kilometres west of Sirte almost to Ben Jawad, 180 kilometres further east would be under IS control and putting it within striking distance of the oil terminals at Sidra and Ras Lanouf.
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