Militants of the terrorist organization “Islamic State” (IS, banned in Russia) for the first time in a long time committed a terrorist attack in Libya, setting up an explosion on the way of the convoy of the Libyan National Army (LNA) of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. The terrorists claimed responsibility for the attack, France 24 journalist and analyst Wassim Nasr reported on Twitter, citing a statement released by militant-affiliated media.
This is the second jihadist attack on LNA forces this month. Oded Berkowitz, a military analyst, Middle East specialist and former IDF officer, recalls that on May 21, militants reported shelling of three positions of the Haftar army in southern Libya, and in the same area where they detonated the explosion on May 25. Before these attacks, the Libyan cell of IS did not show itself for many months, thus the LNA had another enemy, experts say.
The area of the May attacks – the vicinity of the city of Tragan (the Tragen variant is also found) – is located 900 kilometers south of Tripoli and the Mediterranean coast, where key battles are being fought between the LNA and the army of the Government of National Accord (PNS). The small town is located on the northern edge of the Idekhan-Marzuk desert and is known as the site of the battles that took place in December 2018 between LNA units and militants who came from northern Chad. Haftar's army, with the help of reinforcements sent by the field marshal, eventually knocked out the militants from Libyan territory, but no precise information about their affiliation has appeared – it was reported that they could be associated with both IS and various illegal armed groups from Chad and Sudan.
Now the LNA is fighting with the PNS forces, on the side of which Turkey is acting, supplying it with equipment, ammunition and air support. The troops controlled by Haftar support Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and France and the United Arab Emirates are also its unofficial allies – the latter, according to some reports, supplied the LNA with equipment, including equipment purchased from Russia. The Russian Federation is regularly credited with supporting the Field Marshal, but the Kremlin has said it is in contact with both Haftar and the PNS. At the same time, it is known that Haftar was in Moscow in 2018 in talks with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov; Petersburg businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is associated with the so-called private military company of Wagner, whose fighters allegedly fought on the side of the field marshal's army before the start of the offensive on Tripoli, was also present at the meeting. President Vladimir Putin, in turn, said that if there are Russian citizens in Libya, they do not represent the interests of the Russian Federation there and do not receive government funding.
