Libya forces corner jihadists in Benghazi district

East Libyan forces said they had gained control on Saturday over one of two remaining districts of Benghazi where they faced armed resistance, 25 June, 2017 (AFP)

BENGHAZI: Forces loyal to east Libya strongman Khalifa Haftar said Wednesday they have cornered the last jihadists in a neighborhood of second city Benghazi and vowed that victory is “imminent.”
The self-styled Libyan National Army said fighting in Soug Al-Hout neighborhood was over and its soldiers had advanced into the central district of Al-Sabri where they were surrounding the last jihadists.
LNA General Abdessalam Al-Hassi told AFP the jihadists were cornered in a small part of Al-Sabri and coming under attack from air strikes as well as ground forces on three fronts.
Haftar’s forces have retaken most of Benghazi since the eastern coastal city was overrun by jihadists in 2014.
Last week a medical source in the city said 44 LNA soldiers had been killed in June alone in Al-Sabri and Soug Al-Hout.
Hassi said the “total liberation of Benghazi from jihadists is imminent.”
A spokesman for the LNA special forces, Col. Miloud Al-Zwei, said Haftar’s forces were getting ready “to launch an assault on Al-Joumhouriya hospital and Al-Jarid market” in Al-Sabri.
Benghazi, cradle of the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed Libya’s veteran dictator Muammar Qaddafi, was overrun by several jihadist groups.
These include the Revolutionary Shoura Council of Benghazi, an alliance of Islamist militias among them suspected members of the Daesh and the Al-Qaeda-linked Ansar Al-Sharia.