After
months-long recovery, Gen. Khalifa Heftar, Commander of the Libyan National
Army, decided on May 7 to launch a comprehensive military operation on the
coastal Libyan city of Derna to the east of Benghazi (the seat of the LNA’s
headquarter).
Gen. Haftar firmly said that the
chief target of his LNA’s attack is to liberate Derna from Jihadist groups
linked to ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Viewed from the perspective of the Egyptian
national security, LNA’s attack will have profound implications for the future
of terrorist groups prowling in areas close to the Egyptian
borders.
Terrorist groups in Derna
After the killing of Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, different armed militias and Jihadists, mostly linked
to Al-Qaeda, managed to seize Derna. They included Ansarul-Sharia,
Al-Morabitoon, Shura Council of Mujahedeen in Derna. In addition to
Derna, Al-Qaeda managed to maintain strong footholds in different areas across
the war-ravaged country, such as Ras-e-Tin, al-Qafra, Ras al-Hilal, Marzaq,
al-Ouwenat, al-Abiyar, Tripoli, Musrata, al-Adiri, al-Nalut, Ghadams,
al-Aziziya, al-Zawiya and al-Khmos. Qualified and experienced commanders played
a major role in Al-Qaeda’s post-Gaddafi wins. They included al-Saedi Abdulla
Ibrahim Abu-Khozim, whose nom de guerre is al-Saedi al-Noufali. Born in 1981,
al-Noufali was appointed the leader of the Liberation Council of Ajdabia and
Support to Benghazi Fighters. He arrested attention in June 2016 when he
announced the establishment of the Benghazi Defence Forces, whose alleged Mufti
al-Sadeq al-Gheriyani was arrested in October 2016 in Mesurata.
Derna in particular is teeming with
Jihadists, such as Ansarul Sharia, which managed to possess strong footholds in
Libya’s eastern areas. The Jihadist group was responsible for the assassination
of the US Consul Christopher Stevens in Benghazi in September 2012.
However, Ansarul Sharia, which was
formed in Aug. 2012, dissolved itself in May 2017. A group of its
fighters sought to tuck their heads under the banner of Shura Council of
Mujahedeen in Derna. Others preferred to pay loyalty to ISIS and the Morabitoon.
Derna was also the seat of Shura Council of Mujahedeen in
Derna, the largest and the most violent militant group. SCMD established its
authority in the city after it dealt a heavy defeat to ISIS and dismissed its
fighters from the area. ISIS confessed to its defeat in a 10-minute video
released on July 12 2015. Since then, Derna has been under the control of the
SCMD, whose fighters appear to be reeling under a heavy coordinated attack by
Gen. Heftar’s troops.
Al-Morabitoon is the third Jihadist group, which attempted
to have a strong foothold in Derna. Al-Morabitoon, which is linked to Al-Qaeda,
was formed by a former Egyptian army officer, Hisham Ashmay turned Jihadist.
Ashmawi was responsible for training camps of the terrorist group of
Ansar Bayt Maqdes in Sinai. Regardless of the small size of Al-Morabitoon’s
fighters, they are highly trained and violent.
LNA’s
attack on Derna and Egypt’s national security:
Under the devastating blows they are being dealt by Gen.
Heftar’s troops, militant groups in Derna have no more than two choices: the
defeated fighters may move to Egypt’s western desert, which is a stone’s throw
from the city. Their guide in this journey will be their leader Hisham Ashmawi,
who is experienced in the topography and geography of the Egyptian western
deserts. It was Ashmawi, who led the bloody attack on Egyptian army checkpoints
in the Bahariya Oases by Ansarul-e-Islam.
On the other hand, Al-Morabitoon fighters would prefer to
seek hiding places in central and southern areas in Libya close to the
Egyptian-Libyan borders. However, arriving there, they will encounter ISIS
fighters deployed areas, such as Al- Jaghbub Oases, which ISIS fighters fled to
after they defeat in Sirte in July last year.
ISIS have reportedly moved to southern-eastern parts of
Libya, about 32 km off the Egyptian borders. According to the LNA’s spokesman
Col. Ahmed el-Mesmari, ISIS formed a sub-group in this area called the Desert
Army to pursue its terrorist activities. Military experts are expecting a
bloody battle to erupt between ISIS and Al-Qaeda fighters, will definitely draw
up the final episode of the terrorist groups in the war-ravaged Libya.
The developments in Derna must be under close scrutiny by
the Egyptian army. Military experts do not discount the possibility that the
Egyptian army will launch a large-scale military operation to destroy
strongholds established by terrorist groups close to the two Egyptian border
cities of Al-Ouwenat and Al-Saloum.
