By Maha Ellawati and Ayman Amzein.
Benghazi, 5 December 2015:
The Libyan National Army’s general command has appointed Brigadier General Abdussalam Al-Hassi as the new head of the Benghazi operations room. He replaces Colonel Ali Al-Thamen, who was killed on Wednesday in a mine explosion on the city’s Sidi Faraj front line.
Hassi was head of the National Transitional Council’s operations room during the revolution and a friend of murdered chief of staff Major-General Abdul Fatah Younis. His was also one of the 17 names controversially proposed by former UN special envoy Bernardino Leon to serve in the new Government of Natinoal Accord; he refused the nomination. Most recently he has been running the Omar Mukhtar Operations Room covering the Derna area.