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By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli, 3 January 2016:
Ajdabiya Revolutionaries’ Shoura Council has today denied that it has pledged allegiance to IS. . . .[restrict]It put out a statement carried on a Libya Dawn media site, saying that the group photographed with a black IS banner was made up of individuals acting without the authority of the Council.
Likewise Derna Shoura Council has denied any links to Al-Qaeda. One of their senior commanders, Saad Al-Tayra was quoted by the Libya Observer as saying that if the council fighters were linked to Al-Qaeda they would make no secret of it. Instead, he said, they were simply conservatives.
Tayra insisted that the IS forces in the Fatayah hills above Derna had almost been defeated. Their request to be allowed to withdraw to Sirte, presumably by sea, had been turned down. Tayra added that once IS had been defeated in Derna, the Council’s fighters would move on to Sirte to defeat them there. [/restrict]
