by Jason | Aug 22, 2016 | International actors
As of 22 August, US Africa Command press statements say that the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit has conducted 77 airstrikes in Sirte under Operation Odyssey Lightning. Additional reporting by the Washington Post indicates the US has begun utilizing the AH-1 Cobra...
by Jason | Aug 15, 2016 | ISIS
The Misratan-led Bunyan Marsus coalition made great gains against ISIS in Sirte, pushing ISIS out of its stronghold in Ouagadougu Centre, Ibn Sina Hospital and Sirte University on 11 August. All three buildings were bastions of ISIS rule in the city, and the group’s...
by Jason | Aug 15, 2016 | Libyan actors
New political wrangling within the GNA is widening rifts even further. On 10 August, the Presidential Council issued a statement threatening to nominate replacement candidates if two of its boycotting members, Ali Al Gatrani and Omar Laswad, did not rejoin within one...
by Jason | Aug 15, 2016 | Other Jihadi Actors
In Tripoli, local pro-GNA militias are recoiling at the perceived rise in Islamist and Misratan power. This tension signals imminent conflict in the capital, and potentially the collapse of the GNA’s political arrangements in western Libya. On 14 August, posters...
by Jason | Aug 15, 2016 | International actors
The Washington Post reported that US Special Operations forces are providing direct, on-the-ground support for Bunyan Marsus fighters battling the ISIS in Sirte. The US troops were tasked with coordinating American airstrikes and providing intelligence as the...
by Jason | Aug 9, 2016 | ISIS
Two major pronouncements were made this week. 1. Misratan forces continued their protracted advance into Sirte as battles supposedly moved into what Banyan Marsus is calling their ‘final stages’. 2. Simultaneously as the fight against ISIS has become less popular for...
by Jason | Aug 9, 2016 | International actors
The US airstrikes are further polarizing opinion on the ground in Libya and are making strange bedfellows between the Islamists and Haftar who both oppose the airstrikes. It is also being reported that Italy is now offering support to the US operations. Although the...
by Jason | Aug 9, 2016 | Other Jihadi Actors
As political constellations are being reformed across Libya, the gap separating ISIS from non-ISIS jihadis are closing as both are finding common ground in their anti-Haftar and anti-Western aims. The gap separating BRSC (as a political faction fighting Haftar in...
by Jason | Aug 9, 2016 | Libyan actors
A shared military front has not materialized and is unlikely to materialize, because ISIS’s opponents have never made a coherent political coalition against it. At the time of writing (early August 2016), divisions between Haftar’s LNA, the GNA’s Banyan Marsus, and...
by Jason | Aug 1, 2016 | ISIS
After fierce fighting on 28-30 July, the Misratan-led Bunyan Marsus coalition took full control of the Hay Dollar area in Sirte. Bunyan Marsus forces seized an artillery ammunition cache in the area, and are currently fortifying their positions there. Fighting...
