Islamists claim Benghazi as their ‘emirate’, Haftar denies

Libya’s Islamist militant group Ansar al-Sharia is claiming that it has seized complete control of Benghazi late on Wednesday, declaring the city an “Islamic emirate” according to the group’s representative – Al Arabiya reports.

Ansar al-Sharia is blacklisted by the United States over its alleged role in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, eastern Libya.

“Benghazi has now become an Islamic emirate,” said Mohammed al-Zahawi, the spokesman, to Radio Tawhid.

However, the renegade general Khalifa Haftar who launched a self-declared campaign to clear the city of Islamist militants, denied the group’s claims. “The national Libyan army is in control of Benghazi and only withdrew from certain positions for tactical reasons,” Haftar told Al Arabiya. “The claim that Benghazi is under the control of militias is a lie,” he said.

Ansar al-Sharia’s declaration comes following two days of fighting in which Islamist fighters and allied militiamen overran an army base in the city.

Sixteen people, most of them soldiers, were killed and 81 others were injured in clashes between the Libyan army and Islamist fighters in the eastern city of Benghazi, medical and military sources said Tuesday, AFP reported.

“Most of the dead and injured are soldiers. Three civilians, including an Egyptian, were killed when a rocket hit their house,” a hospital source said on condition of anonymity.
Fighting broke out after an alliance of Islamist militia attacked an army barrack, killing five soldiers, a military official said.

Benghazi’s clashes followed a week of fighting between rival militias for control of Tripoli International Airport in the capital that has prompted the North Africa country to appeal for international help to stop Libya becoming a failed state.