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Libya: No French Troops Fighting ’ISIS’

Libya: No French Troops Fighting ’ISIS’
folder_openLibya access_time8 years ago
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Local Editor

Libya's internationally recognized government denied media reports that French Special Forces are engaged in covert military operations against "ISIS" terrorists in the North African state.

Libya: No French Troops Fighting ’ISIS’

Relatively, government spokesman Hatem al-Ouraybi said on Thursday the recognized government "didn't allow and won't allow any foreign forces to enter Libyan territories."

"Our brave soldiers in the Arab Libyan Armed Forces are the ones who freed Benghazi from the hand of terror without any support from the international community," he added.

Al-Ouraybi's remarks came in response to a report by France's Le Monde newspaper on Wednesday that French special forces and members of the external security service were in Libya for "clandestine operations" in cooperation with the US and Britain.

The newspaper also mentioned that the French intelligence had "initiated" a previous airstrike last November that killed the top leader of "ISIS", Abu Nabil, in Libya.

Wanis Bukhamada, Special Forces commander in the recognized government army, also denied the Le Monde report and said "only Libyans are the ones who fought terrorism in Benghazi."

On the other hand, the PM of the government in Tripoli, Khalifa Ghweil, unrecognized by the international community, confirmed that French Special Forces "were leading the fight in Benghazi."

Libya has been grappling with violence and political uncertainty since former dictator Muammar Gaddafi was deposed and later killed in 2011 amid NATO airstrikes.

"ISIS" took advantage of the chaos and captured Libya's northern port city of Sirte in June 2015, almost four months after it announced its presence in the city, and made it the first city to be ruled by the terrorist group outside of Iraq and Syria.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

 

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