Gulf of Sidra, Cyrenaica and Benghazi
The Tripoli Post reported on 10 October that Ansar Al Sharia, the Islamist brigade suspected to be behind the 11 September attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, had been cornered in the Jebel Akhdar (Green Mountains) region by the National Army. According to the report, military forces in the area lack the manpower and equipment to confront the rebel brigade. Separate reports have claimed that the area has seen significant US ‘drone’ activity in recent weeks and that both the Libyan Defense Ministry and the US authorities are aware of the location of the locations of Ansar Al Sharia groups in the area. The report cited a National Army Colonel who warned against unilateral US action against Ansar Al Sharia and that if the US acts alone, it would cause significant resentment and could destabilise the region.
The Libya Herald reported that Benghazi’s police chief, Colonel Mohammed Ben Haleem, escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb detonated under his car on the morning of 13 October in the Hadaeq area. Ben Haleem was a police colonel under the Qadhafi regime before taking up his post under the transitional government. This is the latest in a series of attacks and assassinations directed against former regime members in the Benghazi area, which has included attacks against those members that defected during the revolution.