Bombers and mines in the eastern city of Benghazi have killed 197 military and civilian personnel, according to the Libyan Press Agency (WAL), a military official led by Marshal Khalifa Hafer said.
“The death toll from booby traps and landmines planted by terrorist groups in Benghazi in 2017 amounted to 197 people, including soldiers and civilians,” the agency quoted Abdul Salam al-Massmari, commander of the military engineering faction of the Karama operations room, as saying.
Twenty-seven experts from military engineering teams were killed as they tried to dismantle and deminish in some areas of the clashes, as well as injuring seven others, according to al-Musmari.
While mines and booby traps killed 170 civilians in Benghazi.
The majority of victims were concentrated in the Qawarishah, Qanwudah, Hawat and Sabri markets.
Al-Mismari said that the army’s general command issued instructions to launch an awareness campaign through the publication of posters and guidelines in the liberated areas of the Islamic State Organization known as the Da’ash, the most recent of which is the Akhrish district and the Benghazi municipal hotel.
“The end of military operations in Akhribish after combing it,” a source with the army chiefs said, two days after the army announced full control of the area.
“The army units have taken full control of Sidi Akhribish, the last stronghold of terrorist groups in the city of Benghazi,” Colonel Melod Zoui, a spokesman for the Libyan army special forces, told Xinhua on Thursday.
In July, Libya’s general commander, Marshal Khalifa Hafer, announced the liberation of the city of Benghazi from terrorism as a complete and undiminished liberation.
Haftar’s announcement came after the army seized control of the al-Sabri area where Ansar al-Sharia and the Islamic state were holed up.
Hafer’s army forces have been fighting for three years to control the eastern city.
On May 16, 2014, Hafater launched a military operation called “Karama” aimed at cracking down on extremist groups in the city.
