Troops loyal to Libyan unity government's defense minister murdered in eastern Libya

Two members of the 204 Tank Brigade formerly commanded by Colonel Al-Mahdi Barghathi the acting defence minister of the Libyan Government have been killed with both showing signs of torture.

The bodies of the two men were found near Al-Abyar about 50 kilometers east of Benghazi. A Libyan National Army source said they showed signs of torture. The two had been reporting missing earlier. Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA) renamed the battalion 298 and a new commander Abdulkarim Hussein was appointed. A number of the brigade appear to be still loyal to Al-Barghathi. The two who were murdered were identified as Ayad Suweih and Miakalal Jirari. In Tripoli, the defence ministry issue issued a statement claiming that Suweih had been killed after he had been held prisoner for two days

The defense ministry also posted an obituary to mourn Ayyd Suweih. A statement on Facebook reads: “The ministry will leave no stone unturned as it tries to stem the ongoing kidnaps, torture, assassinations and violations against civilians in Benghazi.” Suweih's body was found tossed on a road in the Al-Abyar district with torture marks on it. He had been shot in the lower back. A third 204 Tanks fighter's body was found thrown in a landfill with torture marks on the body as well.

In other incidents, a security unit affiliated with Haftar in Benghazi stormed the house of a brigade fighter on Saturday at dawn and arrested him as well as confiscating his car. The group also raided the house of Al-Barghathi's son in law in another area of Benghazi. According to the Libya Observer:Benghazi is now a battlefield for the security units that are all fighting for control of the security department. Some of the units are pro-Haftar and others are against him and both have taken the fight so far to the extent that they started using military vehicles and deploying fighters against one another.

Several tweets confirm the killing incidents but with different numbers and some additional names.One reads: "kidnapping, Y'day, of an officer & 4 soldiers of Barghathi's Tanks Batallion 204. 3 found dumped in tipping site (tortured), 2 still missing

6:55 AM - 6 Nov 2016". Another claims: "Mahmoud e-Shami & Khaled el-Bijo still missing. All these kidnappings & killings targeted members of Brigade 204, yesterday & dawn today. "

General Haftar militarizing eastern Libya

General Khalifa Haftar and allied officials have carried out a series of actions in eastern Libya that have replaced civilian officials with army commanders.

The first move was made some time ago in which the mayor of Benghazi, the largest city in eastern Libya, was replaced by Colonel Ahmed Larabi and the council was suspended. The appointment was made by the Chief of Staff of the House of Representatives(HoR) government, who is the military governor of the eastern region, Abdelrazig Al-Nathori, an ally of Haftar. Later Al-Nathori replaced the mayor of Ajdabiya, Salim Jodran, brother of the head of the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG)Ibrahim. He was replaced by retired colonel Embarek Al-Manafi, as commander. Al-Manafi is a supporter of Haftar-s Operation Dignity launched in May of 2014 to clear Libya of Islamists, which includes the militia groups supporting the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA). The Jodran's support the GNA while Haftar opposes it. Now Al-Nathori has acted a third time replacing the elected mayor of Al-Kufra by Colonel Saleh Al- Zarrouq.

Haftar is an admirer of the Egyptian president El-Sisi who in turn is supportive of Haftar. In a sign of the close relation between Egypt and the eastern HoR government Al-Nathori said:"Because we are engaged in internal battles and frontlines, we tasked the Egyptian army forces to protect the joint borders from the sea to the Libyan-Sudanese borders." He said that the Libyan National Army (LNA) of the HoR headed by Haftar, and the Egyptian army are as one.

Nathori warned as well that LNA forces would bomb any vessel that was not authorized to load oil by the eastern-based National Oil Company of the HoR government. The eastern NOC is not internationally recognized. He also claimed that the PFG would be pushed out of the ports that they occupy. He also said: “The Presidential Guard announced by the Presidential Council of the UN-proposed government is one of the anti-bodies to the HoR’s army because Al-Sirraj has no right to form a military unit when he is illegitimate and his government failed to gain the vote of confidence from the HoR.” Faiez Serra is head of the Presidential Council (PC) of the GNA and PM.

In another move, Al-Nathori appointed a five man committee to take over Libyan Airlines. The HoR government has also shut down a number of Benghazi radio stations.

A spokesperson for Operation Dignity, Ahmed Al-Mismari, directly threatened the UN-backed GNA:"Any institution or city under Sirraj militias would be regarded illegal and must be attacked. The formation of Presidential Guard, foreign intervention and Sirte battle are all illegal."

Statements from representatives of Operation Dignity show that no opposition to the movement will be tolerated. Ali Amrouni, an Operation Dignity security chief said in effect that anyone against the operation should be killed: "Any one march in protest against Dignity Operation in any district will be shot dead. This is a death order, I gave my instructions to shoot any Dignity Operation protester."

One would think that the UN and the GNA, as well as human rights organizations would have some comment to make on these threats. Instead, PM Serraj is apparently scheduled to appear before a meeting of the HoR tomorrow. No doubt he will plead with the members to vote confidence in the GNA. There is no sign as yet that the PC of the GNA has come up with a new cabinet as demanded by the HoR. Recent meetings of the PC had as few as 4 of 9 members present.

According to the terms of the Libya Political Agreement (LPA), the HoR is required to pass a vote of confidence in the GNA before its term officially starts. The HoR would then become the legislature of the GNA. However, the GNA has already been operating for some time but without a legislature. Recently a second vote of confidence failed to pass and the GNA was to have come up with a new cabinet within ten days that would then be voted on by the HoR.

Libya: Eastern region wants autonomy

Both tribal and militia leaders in eastern Libya declare their intention to be semi-autonomous within Libya. Thousands of representatives announced the move in a ceremony in Benghazi the main city in the east.

The group seeks to gain more power within Libya. The region has many oil riches that local groups no doubt wish to control and profit from. The new region would stretch from the eastern border with Egypt to the central coastal city of Sirte in the west.

An Al Jazeera reporter said:"It is certainly significant, but we need to put it into context: first of all, they have announced the formation of a new regional council, and this will actually take a couple weeks to form,""At this stage, they say they would like independence, but they have not declared independence. At this stage they haven't even declared a degree of semi autonomy."

An NTC election law that allocates 60 seats for the eastern region out of 200 for the whole country was rejected by the group. The NTC (National Transitional Council) opposes any autonomy for the eastern region. The NTC worries that this could lead to the ultimate break-up of Libya. In the past the eastern region had been a separate country.

A representative of the NTC said that the eastern leaders were simply looking for political power whereas ordinary people want a unified Libya. He said:"Well obviously, all Libyans have the right to express their opinion. But the fact is, for Libyans to consider such a split in the country and its governance, I think it is clearly not advisable. The Libyan people will not stand for it," The rebellion against Gadaffi was centered in eastern Libya partly because many felt that the central government had too much control. Now the same alienation is being expressed against the new government. For more see this article. northsunm32 is based in Brandon, Manitoba,