Libya’s General Haftar Declares Liberation of Benghazi from Militants

Local Editor

Following more than three years of fighting, Libya's self-styled National Army [LNA] liberated the country's second-largest city from militants, General Khalifa Haftar announced on state TV, declaring a "new era of peace" in Benghazi.

Several militant and terrorist cells belonging to the so-called Revolutionary Shura Council of Benghazi managed to capture the cradle of the Libyan uprising in 2014, prompting competing centers of power in the fractured country to battle for the city.

After three years of fierce fighting, which began in May 2014, Field Marshal Haftar, the leader of the Libyan National Army [LNA], finally announced that his forces are now in full control of Benghazi.

"After a continuous struggle against terrorism and its agents that lasted more than three years... we announce to you the liberation of Benghazi from terrorism," Haftar said in a speech broadcast on television.

Haftar further added that his forces are now sweeping the city for remaining mines and bombs, promising peace to the residents of the city.

"Today Benghazi enters a new era of peace, security, reconciliation.... and, reconstruction," Haftar noted.

With Benghazi liberated, the LNA now exerts control over the eastern part of the country, which is still struggling to recover from the repercussions of the NATO-backed uprising.

Libya descended into chaos after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, with multiple ‘governments' and centers of power competing for control of the oil-rich country.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team