Libya News and Interests

https://www.libyaobserver.ly/news/l...s-resume-power-plants’-projects-official-says
The CEO of the General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) Ali Sassi, said the damage caused by attacks and vandalism on power plants and cables as well as other GECOL belongings since 2011 reached 1.5 billion dinars.

Sassi said in a presser on Sunday, after the release of three Turkish workers after 8 months of kidnap, that GECOL is being informed of the assaults and is now in contact with Turkish ENKA Company to talk it into resuming Ubari gas power station.

“Load shedding was due to the suspension of Ubari plant as the Turkish workers were abducted and Mafatih power plant in Al-Khumus last week (It lost 500 megawatts for the network due to the fire. Repairing work is underway.) The company was going to save 1000 megawatts a day if it continued.” Sassi added.

He explained that they are also contacting the South Korean companies to convince them to return to work in the suspended projects in Tripoli, adding that after the Turks’ abduction, the Korean government banned its nationals from travelling to Libya.

The three engineers were abducted in November 2017 while on their way from Ubari airport to the city’s gas power plant, where they had been working. They were released Saturday but without saying who their kidnappers were.
 
Libya’s Deputy Prime Minister, Ahmad Metig, on Saturday threatened to close the land border with Tunisia, if the “harassment” of Libyan travelers on the Tunisian side continues.

07-13-620x377.jpg

border of Ras Ajdaiibya, Tunisia

The statement also said the Metig’s instructions were issued following of “harassment by outlaws” of Libyans while traveling through the Tunisian area of Ben Gerdane in southern Tunisia towards the border.

Ben Gerdane is a trade center near the border. According to the source, Libyan security prevented Tunisian cars from transporting smuggled goods, such as electrical appliances and foodstuffs, to Tunisia. As retaliation, Tunisia started harassing Libyans travelling by cars towards Libya.

The border crossing between Libya and Tunisia was closed repeatedly for various reasons in the past. The crossing is about 600 km southeast of the capital Tunis, and only 200 km west of the Libyan capital Tripoli.
http://www.libyanexpress.com/libya-...th-tunisia-over-harassment-against-travelers/
 
A hundred or more people are feared dead after a rubber boat carrying migrants capsized Friday off the Libyan coast, Libya’s navy said, hours after European Union leaders hailed a deal on migration that could see more migrants prevented from making the perilous Mediterranean crossing.

A rescue operation is ongoing, but the bodies of three children have been retrieved, Libyan navy spokesman Ayoub Qassim said.

The International Organization for Migration said only 14 migrants had been rescued so far.

“The bodies of three children under the age of 5 have been retrieved. How many missing or dead total, we don’t know for now,” IOM spokeswoman for Libya, Christine Petre, told CNN.

Doctors are providing medical assistance on site, and additional staff have been deployed, Petre said. “IOM is providing humanitarian direct assistance at the disembarkation point, including water and food,” she said.

Separately, an estimated 345 migrants were returned Friday to Libyan shores by the Libyan coast guard, IOM said.

Close to 10,200 migrants have been taken back to Libya so far in 2018, Petre said. More than 2,000 were returned by the Libyan coast guard last week.

EU ‘abdicating responsibilities’

Aid group Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières, urged EU leaders Friday to “show some basic decency” by committing to search and rescue operations for those in trouble at sea — and then taking them to a place of safety, rather than Libya.



Libyan deportation centers are rife with abuse, rights groups say, and a CNN undercover investigation last year revealed cases of migrants being sold at slave auctions.


Italy’s new populist government has stirred controversy this month by closing its ports to ships rescuing migrants from the Mediterranean.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte welcomed the European Council deal Friday, saying it took “long negotiation, but from today Italy is no longer alone.”
Uptick in crossings

Under the deal agreed early Friday at the European Council summit in Brussels, the European Union will look into setting up migration centers in countries outside Europe to assess migrants’ claims for protection as well as secure centers on European soil.

The proposed “regional disembarkation platforms” would be in North African nations such as Libya, with the aim of breaking the business model of human traffickers who ship migrants across the sea to Europe. However, it’s not yet clear whether those countries are able or willing to operate such a system.

EU leaders also agreed to intensify efforts to stop smugglers operating out of Libya or elsewhere, including greater support for the Libyan coast guard and for the Sahel region, through which many migrants from sub-Saharan Africa travel on their way north.

In addition, the deal includes more money for Spain and Morocco to stem migrants coming through the eastern Mediterranean route.

Despite the dangers, thousands of migrants — many fleeing conflict, poverty or oppression — continue to risk their lives on overcrowded and barely seaworthy boats in the hope of finding a better life on European shores.

While illegal border crossings into the EU have decreased by 95% from their peak in October 2015, there has been a recent uptick in certain routes across the Mediterranean, the European Council said.

As of June 6, some 33,400 migrants and refugees had reached Europe by sea this year, IOM said, most of them arriving through Greece, Italy and Spain. The estimated number of deaths stood at 785.
https://kplr11.com/2018/06/29/100-feared-dead-off-libya-as-eu-leaders-hail-migrant-deal/
 
920x920.jpg

^ Migrants arrive at the port of Tarifa, southern Spain, after being rescued by Spain's

The Libyan coastguard, charged with patrolling the frontline of Europe’s efforts to halt irregular migration, has only three working patrol boats, which often stay in port for lack of fuel.

“We don’t get any support, either from inside the country or from overseas,” said Ayoub Kacem, spokesman for the navy which oversees Libya’s coastguard, adding that the force’s only vessels have been on loan from Italy since 2010.

In a country wracked by violence since the 2011 fall and killing of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a NATO-backed uprising that destroyed Libya’s navy, officials say European powers have abandoned them — despite their efforts on Europe’s behalf to prevent migrants crossing their territory.

Colonel Abu Ajila Abdelbarri, who captains one of the coastguard’s patrol vessels, said they regularly break down.

“These are old boats, not even designed for search and rescue… their capacity is very limited,” he said, warning that the service was on the point of “total collapse”.

Kacem said the European Union, which Thursday was holding a crucial summit overshadowed by deep divisions on how to tackle irregular migration, had “failed in its commitments”.
https://www.channelstv.com/2018/06/28/libya-navy-bemoans-lack-of-eu-support-over-migrants/
 
After tightening his grip on eastern Libya, military strongman Khalifa Haftar now wants to extend his influence across the west where the UN-backed unity government is based, experts say.
http://www.africanews.com/2018/06/30/west-libya-in-strongman-s-sights-after-conquering-east/

1024x576_485951.jpg


One of the most powerful players in the Libyan conflict, the 75-year-old field marshal heads the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) allied with a rival authority in the east.

He has been bolstered by a string of military victories in eastern parts of the country, which has been wracked by chaos since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Barely a week after seizing key oil export terminals from a rival militia, his forces on Thursday announced the “liberation” of Derna, the last eastern city beyond his control, from radical Islamist militias.

“The LNA has once again proved its capability to operate on multiple fronts and achieve military success,” said Mohamed Eljarh, chief executive of research firm Libya Outlook based in the country’s east.

Haftar’s enemies are ultimately his biggest advantage, he added.

“With their ill-informed and ill-organised military adventures, they make it easy for Haftar to justify the expansion of the LNA into the western and southern regions,”
Click to expand...
Eljarh said.

‘Overestimates his strengths’

Until 1963, Libya was a federal union divided into three administrative states — Cyrenaica in the east, Tripolitania in the west and Fezzan in the south — fault lines that remain to this day.

In recent years, Haftar — whose forces have been backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia — has repeatedly vowed to “liberate the capital”.

But any push westwards is likely to face resistance particularly from armed groups in the western city of Misrata that are among the country’s most powerful and hostile to Haftar.

Haftar’s “triumphalist declarations on his supposed victory against terrorism suggest that he may be carried away by the recapture of Derna and underestimate the road ahead”, said Karim Bitar, an expert at the Institute for International and Strategic Affairs in Paris.

“Even the external powers that support him sometimes feel that Haftar overestimates his strengths and that nothing will be possible without a political rapprochement”.
Click to expand...

Accused by his opponents of wanting to establish a new military dictatorship, Haftar refuses to recognise the authority of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA).

His relations with the authorities in Libya have always been complex.

Haftar served under Kadhafi but later fell from grace when he was captured by Chadian troops during Libya’s fruitless 1978-1987 conflict with its neighbour.

He languished in jail until the United States managed to secure his release and offer him political asylum.

He lived in the United States for more than two decades, giving rise to accusations of CIA links, before returning in 2011 to take part in the NATO-backed uprising.

Three years later, he declared war on jihadists in second city Benghazi, prompting Libya’s then-government to accuse him of trying to stage a coup.

‘In a hurry’

An agreement struck in Paris in May between four Libya leaders including Haftar and GNA head Fayez al-Sarraj to hold elections in December has done little to calm tensions.

After Haftar announced he was handing over the recaptured ports to the eastern authorities, the GNA urged the UN Security Council to block any “illegal” oil exports.

“Haftar is arrogant because certain states encourage him by promising him their support,” said Jalel Harchaoui, a Libya expert at The University of Paris VIII.

Haftar’s rivals accuse him of turning his back on the commitments he made in Paris.

“It is hard to see how Libya is capable of holding free and fair elections under current conditions,” said Ethan Chorin, a consultant and former Tripoli-based US diplomat.

“The various negotiating parties do not recognise one another and have limited influence on the ground — Haftar being the notable exception,”
Click to expand...
he said.

Haftar’s camp insists that its goal is not control of oil but to bring the GNA to the negotiating table.

In particular it wants the sacking of central bank chief Seddiq al-Kabir, whom the eastern authorities accuse of financial support for their rivals.

“Haftar is absolutely determined to weaken the balance around the GNA in Tripoli, not only by military means but also by administrative and economic means,” said Harchaoui.

“Haftar is an old man, so in a hurry,” he said.
 
1031832203.jpg

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201807051066053148-qatar-libya-oil-militants-attacks/

CAIRO (Sputnik) - The Tobruk-based parliament in Libya on Wednesday accused Qatar of supporting militants that had attacked Libyan oil ports in June, local media reported.

According to the Libyan News Agency, the statement was made by the defense and national security committee of the House of Representatives, the Libyan parliament based in Tobruk.

In mid-June, militants with links to the Al Qaeda terrorist group attacked and captured the ports. In late June, the forces of the Libyan National Army (LNA) started seizing the so-called oil crescent and soon declared full control over the area stretching from Tobruk to Sidr, including the port in Ras Lanuf. The LNA said control would be handed over to the eastern government based in Tobruk instead of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA).

According to the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC), the militants’ assaults on the ports resulted in Libyan oil production cuts amounting to 400,000 barrels per day. Moreover, two oil storage tanks, located in the ports, were destroyed. Production then came to a near halt after the capture by the LNA.

The Tobruk government and the UN-recognized GNA have been the two main entities governing Libya since the GNA was established in 2015. Prior to that, the west of the country was under the control of the General National Congress. The duality emerged in the aftermath of the overthrow of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 in the course of the Libyan conflict.

Qatar has been under diplomatic and economic blockade since June 2017 when the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain cut off diplomatic relations and communication with Qatar, accusing the country of supporting terrorism and interfering in their internal affairs. The Maldives, Mauritius, and Mauritania followed suit, while Jordan and Djibouti reduced the level of their diplomatic missions in Qatar. Doha has refuted the allegations.

1051415381.jpg
 
US crude rises 20 cents, settling at $74.14, after topping $75 for first time since 2014

U.S. crude rose above $75 a barrel for the first time since November 2014 on Tuesday, after Libya declared force majeure on some of its crude exports.
Production at Syncrude Canada's 360,000 barrels per day (bpd) oil sands facility near Fort McMurray, Alberta, was hit by a power outage last month.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries pumped 32.32 million bpd in June, a Reuters survey showed, up 320,000 bpd from May.
he American benchmark broke through the threshold as the market grew increasingly concerned about a shortage of oil amid supply disruptions in Libya and Canada and as tough U.S. sanctions on Iran loom.

"You're starting to hear talk of oil shock. There is little confidence in the market that we're going to escape an ever-tightening supply and demand balance now," said John Kilduff, founding partner at energy hedge fund Again Capital.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/03/oil...ajeure-on-supplies-demand-slowdown-looms.html
 
According to sources from the area of clashes, Buazza was killed in the fighting as he was hit in the head by gunfire, then died in the hospital.

The fighting was prompted by a previous dispute by Al-Kikly and Buazza as the former accused him of a coup attempt, knowing that Al-Kikly heads a security apparatus of the Interior Ministry and his armed group controls Abu Salim and Al-Hadba areas in Tripoli.

Several injuries were reported by eyewitnesses, let alone material damage as well as blockade of several roads in the capital, including Airport Road.

They added that fighting ceased after Al-Kikly's armed group controlled the positions of Buazza.

No official numbers of deaths or injuries were recorded in the capital.
 
Italy promises billions of euros to Libya if it accepts the return of migrants
http://www.euronews.com/2018/07/08/...to-libya-if-it-accepts-the-return-of-migrants

Italy and Libya have agreed to reactivate a friendship treaty signed a decade ago that allowed migrants to be returned to Libyan territory.

"We agreed to reactivate the 2008 Italian-Libyan friendship treaty," said Libya's foreign minister Mohamad Siala in a joint press conference in Tripoli with Italian counterpart Enzo Moavero Milanesi.

He hailed the agreement reached during his first visit to Tripoli as "significant and promising".

The original treaty was signed by former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and Italy's then prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, as they sought to turn a page on 40 years of stormy relations between the North African country and its former coloniser.

But the deal was suspended in February 2011, after the start of the uprising that saw Gadhafi forced from power and killed.

The original treaty envisaged unlocking 4.2 billion euros of Italian investment in Libya as compensation for colonisation by Rome.

In exchange, Libya would work to stop illegal migrants embarking from its shores -- and receive those sent back to it.

In Tripoli on Saturday the two ministers did not say if the text of the reactivated treaty had been amended.
 
Last edited:
Oil sector under fire in Libyan corruption crackdown

5b51b36dfc7e932d0d8b45de.jpg


As part of the agreement, the governments agreed that there should be a wide-ranging corruption probe under the auspices of the UN, the UK’s newspaper The Independent reports, citing sources close to the Libyan authorities.

According to The Independent’s sources in the UK foreign office, there wasn’t a “firm” agreement between the parties, although Libyan sources said that “everyone around the table said it was a good idea”, with France, the UAE, and Egypt reportedly being in favor of such a probe.

General Haftar and his allies claim that Libya’s oil money is being mismanaged, stolen, or channeled to extremist groups. The accusations are mostly directed to the Central Bank of Libya. At a meeting with the foreign governments in Rome that later led to the agreement for returning the ports to the NOC’s control, Haftar’s side quoted 11 allegations of abuse of power and corruption at the Central Bank of Libya that it wanted investigated, according to The Independent’s sources.

Central bank governor Saddek Elkaber, for his part, has accused Libyan governments of using the central bank as a ‘scapegoat’ for their own mismanagement and misdeeds.

The latest agreement that lifted the oil port blockade may lead to a wide-ranging corruption probe, but any new deal on oil wealth distribution must tackle the structural corruption problems in Libya, analysts say.
https://www.rt.com/business/433930-oil-sector-libya-corruption/
 
Municipality of Central Tripoli receives insulin shipment from Italy
insulin_tripoli.jpg

https://www.libyaobserver.ly/health/municipality-central-tripoli-receives-insulin-shipment-italy

he Municipality's Information Office clarified that the shipment was received by the Mayor of Central Tripoli Abdul Raouf Beit al-Mal, from the representative of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and was delivered directly to the medical supply stores in Tripoli, in the presence of the public stores of supply officials.

The Municipal Council explained that the amount of insulin received is adequate for a minimum of three months and will be distributed to 11 health facilities serving diabetes patients in the Municipality.

The Municipality pointed out that the shipment comes within the frame work of the EU support to Libya in the field of health and a donation from Italy to the Nicosia Initiative, which facilitates work between the municipalities of Libya and the European Union municipalities in many areas, including, health, training, and local administration.

Last week, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced the distribution of insulin drug to seven Libyan municipalities, including, Tripoli, Gharyan, Tobruk, Benghazi, Zintan, Sirte and Sabha, in cooperation with the World Health Organization and the Libyan Ministry of Health, and with the support of the Italian Ministry of Interior.
Mayor of Central Tripoli
Click to expand...
how many mayors does Tripoli have?
 
Islamic State in Libya: Fighters are regrouping in the lawless desert
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/i...awless-desert-GNA-oil-battle-sirte-1812019376

bandoned%20and%20ruined%20military%20hardware%20on%20the%20coastal%20highway%20between%20Misrata%20and%20Sirte%20Libya%20%20Tom%20Westcott%20MEE.jpg

An abandoned tank lies on the coastal highway between Misrata and Sirte
++
SIRTE, Libya - Driving towards Sirte on Libya’s coastal highway, Major General Mohammed al-Ghossri gestures towards the desert expanse stretching south and shouts over his shoulder: “That’s all IS down there.”

For years, Libya’s lawless desert south has remained largely outside the control of the country's competing governments. During the 2016 battle against the Islamic State (IS) in Sirte, senior IS leaders and fighters fled south into outlying desert and mountainous areas, where, largely unchecked, they have been able to regroup.

“Unfortunately, the Libyan desert is still full of IS forces, so we have to be very careful and stay alert, defending the borders of Sirte,” says Ghossri, admitting that the Libyan forces affiliated to the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) had been unable to pursue IS into the desert following the liberation of Sirte.

Khalifa Haftar, the military commander under Libya’s eastern government, has some forces in the area, said Ghossri, "but the reality is that the south is totally out of any governmental control”.

Remnants of IS and al-Qaeda operatives, were occupying an expansive stretch, from the outskirts of the pro-Muammar Gaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid, to the southern al-Jufra area, and east to the edge of the oil crescent, south of the fiercely contested oil export terminals of Brega and Ras Lanuf.

“That area is now full of terrorists and they are becoming more active,” he said, describing a recent surge of IS attacks on remote desert villages and oil facilities, where security personnel had been assassinated and civilians kidnapped.

Colonel Ali Faida, commander of the Libyan forces currently securing Sirte, said his men were too poorly equipped to undertake desert operations, despite being fully aware of an increasing IS presence south of the town.

“We are very concerned about the areas south of Sirte because our intelligence reports show IS are very close, in the al-Jufra area, around 100km away from our last military positions,” he said. “But south of Sirte poses very challenging terrain and we are short of suitable vehicles to navigate this, so it’s very difficult for us to take control of this area.”

aida said logistical support, already in short supply during the 2016 battle against IS in Sirte, had virtually stopped after liberation. He listed basic supplies his forces needed - spare parts and new tyres for military vehicles, ammunition and night vision equipment.

“We still do reconnaissance operations because we can’t just sit here waiting for IS to attack us. We have to seek them out before they seek us out,” he said.

Regrouping in remote desert and rural areas, IS fighters in Libya have been pushed into a role of insurgency and banditry to sustain themselves, lying in wait for passing motorists along the main road from the coast towards the central Libyan desert town of Sebha, attacking goods vehicles, fuel tankers and ordinary civilian cars.

IS swelling ranks with immigrant fighters

Faida said undocumented immigrants, moving easily across Libya’s porous borders, and who had previously made up many of the foreign fighters in Sirte, were also still joining IS.

“Illegal immigrants trying to reach Europe come to Libya looking for money and they get good money from IS. So according to our intelligence reports, the numbers of hidden IS fighters are steadily increasing with these foreign fighters,” he said. “During our most recent battle, we captured many IS foreign fighters and they confessed they had joined IS because the money was so good.”

For years, most illegal immigrants have travelled from Libya’s smuggling hub of Sebha towards the coast via Bani Walid, a bastion of pro-Gaddafi sentiment where Libya’s former national green flag flies openly across the town. Locals say the rural outskirts of the town also provided a haven for top IS commanders who fled Sirte even before the 2016 battle began.

There are two valleys near there - Wadi al-Load and Wadi al-Bay, near Jufra - where most IS elements went into hiding after we defeated them in Sirte,” said Ghossri. “After their defeat, IS didn't give up, they just went underground. They are gradually spreading and they still pose a threat, but they will never build another state here and they will never raise their black flag in Libya again.”

Bani Walid’s fraught post-2011 relations with the city of Misrata, which led the anti-IS operations in Sirte, has also raised concerns locally about the possibility of IS finding shelter there.
 
Libyan%20military%20forces%20on%20one%20of%20Sirtes%20coastal%20frontlines%20in%202016%20Tom%20Westcott%20MEE.jpg

Libyan military forces patrol on one of Sirte’s coastal frontlines in 2016

Areas outlying Bani Walid have been targeted several times with air strikes carried out by the US Africa Command (Africom), most recently in June. Although local media and a Libyan human rights organisation claimed those June air strikes resulted in civilian casualties, Africom said only four IS militants, including an IS commander, had been killed, with no civilian casualties.

The US announced in December 2016 that it had ended its air campaign in Libya after achieving its core objectives, but it has since carried out at least ten declared aerial bombardments, mostly in the desert regions south of Sirte.

International forces from the US, Britain and Italy have also maintained military bases in Misrata since the war against IS began in 2016, and show no signs of leaving. Italy is estimated to have several hundred troops in a base in the city, ostensibly guarding a field hospital they set up in Misrata towards the end of the Sirte battle, with smaller numbers of American and British forces housed in separate, purpose-built bases, a Misrata source told MEE.

International forces from America, Britain and Italy have also maintained military bases in Misrata since the war against IS began in 2016, and show no signs of leaving

He added that they were only there “to protect their interests.” Other local sources insisted there were as many as 1,600 foreign forces stationed in Misrata.

Although help from international forces was welcomed during the 2016 Sirte battle, their low-profile but lingering presence has become increasingly controversial, with at least one Libyan military unit refusing to work with them.

After Sirte’s liberation, the US carried out drone surveillance operations and attacks but were apparently not permitted to accompany ground forces patrolling the Libyan desert, according to a member of Brigade 166. The unit was one of the last in Libya to pull out of Sirte after IS seized control, and also one of the only brigades under the GNA now deemed able to carry out desert patrols.
Suspicions over US agenda

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the brigade member said earlier this year that the Americans insisted they needed to investigate on the ground and were initially permitted to accompany two patrols with Brigade 166. The third time they asked, the Brigade’s commander refused, apparently suspecting ulterior motives or a hidden agenda.

Ghossri said IS in the Libyan desert were being monitored and kept under control by Africom and other international forces stationed in Libya. But the air strikes seem to have had little impact on IS's ability to carry out regular attacks in Libya's south, which have increasingly targeted civilians and the military.

On 25 July, IS attacked a checkpoint and police station in the desert town of Aqilah, killing two soldiers and allegedly raising their flag over the police station before being beaten back into the desert, where 12 militants were killed in fighting.

Ghossri’s confidence that IS would not be able to seize control of Libyan territory as it did in 2015 was not shared by the tribal elder, who pointed out that IS thrives where there is civil conflict and division.

“Libyans fighting Libyans provides the perfect environment for IS to flourish, as we saw before,” he said. “And if Libya’s divisions continue, IS will return.”
Click to expand...
 
Philippine Navy readies 'force package' to save Filipino captives in Libya
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/...es-force-package-save-filipino-captives-libya
The Filipino engineers and the South Korean were taken in an attack on a water project site in western Libya on July 6. A video posted on social media earlier showed the four hostages being held by armed men.

South Korea deployed to Libya earlier this week the 4,000-ton warship Munmu the Great, which will take part in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden.

Since former Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi was ousted from power and killed in 2011, foreign workers and diplomatic missions have frequently been targeted by militias or jihadists such as the Islamic State group.
 
Internally displaced persons from Benghazi are running out of resources, but still fear to return to the city controlled by General Khalifa Haftar.
 
Manchester Arena bomber was rescued from Libya by Royal Navy
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...a-bomber-was-rescued-from-libya-by-royal-navy
The Manchester Arena suicide bomber was rescued by the Royal Navy from the civil war in Libya three years before he killed 22 people at a pop concert, it has emerged.

Salman Abedi was 19 when he boarded the HMS Enterprise in Tripoli in August 2014 with his younger brother Hashem and more than 100 other British citizens.

It is understood Abedi’s name was on a list of stranded citizens handed to the crew in charge of the evacuation. The vessel took them to Malta where they caught a flight back to the UK.

In May last year, he killed 22 people, including seven children, at an Ariana Grande concert with a homemade suicide vest.

A government spokesman said: “During the deteriorating security situation in Libya in 2014, Border Force officials were deployed to assist with the evacuation of British nationals and their dependants.”

Abedi was being monitored by security services when he travelled to Libya, but his case was closed a month before his rescue.
The Anderson review into the Manchester attack found that the decision to close Abedi’s case as a “subject of interest” was sound,
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top