ISIS claims responsibility for killing two soldiers of LNA

Two soldiers from a brigade commanded by the Libyan National Army were killed and three wounded Wednesday in an attack claimed by ISIS. The terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack soon after via its propaganda agency Amaq.

It was the first attack following the announcement of LNA commander Khalifa Haftar that the military institution “was in control of most of Libyan territories.” One of the dead soldiers was burned while the other was beheaded, a military source said.

Spokesman for the LNA General Ahmad al-Mesmari said that authorities launched an investigation into the attack and were bidding to track down the perpetrators. Despite the loss of its coastal stronghold of Sirte in December 2016, ISIS remains active in Libya.

The last attack the group claimed was on October 4, when a suicide bomber killed four people at a judicial complex in the western city of Misrata. There has been chaos in Libya since the downfall of Muammar Gaddafi. The country has two rival governments: the United Nations-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli and a rival administration backed by Haftar's forces in the country’s east.

Meanwhile, Ghassan Salame, the UN's envoy for Libya, met on Thursday with 30 lawmakers and representatives of the South at the mission’s headquarters in Tripoli. The mission said in several Tweets that Salame briefed the officials in three separate meetings on the UN’s efforts to resolve the country’s crisis, and the results of the Joint Drafting Committee’s last round of discussions."I will mobilize all UNSMIL's capabilities to better serve the people of the South," it quoted Salame as saying.

“I do not promise you what I can't implement, but I promise you to do everything I can implement,” he added. UNSMIL is the United Nations Support Mission in Libya.

On the other hand, The holdups in completing the negotiations to amend the Libya Political Agreement are because there are influential players in Libya who are benefitting for the current crisis and do not want change, UN special envoy Ghassan Salamé this evening told a group of Libyan political and tribal figures.

Nonetheless, despite the breakdown between the two sides, the special envoy believed that they would return to the negotiating table in Tunis within a week or two, one of the Libyan officials at the meeting told the Libya Herald. He remained optimistic, but he was also in a hurry to finish this stage of action plan.

Salamé was meeting in Tunis with members of the National Movement for Libya, which expressed support of his action plan to resolve the country’s crisis. Headed by Sheikh Faraj Abu Hassan, one of the leaders of the Obeidat tribe, the movement, started in March 2016 but only formally launched last November, has been involved in promoting national reconciliation. It draws together tribal leaders, activists and peacemakers, as well as representatives of youth and women’s groups.

In addition to Abu Hassan, also present this evening were a number of other senior members including the head of the Tuareg Social Council, Moulay Kudaidi, Sheikh Mohamed Al-Barghouti, the leader of the Warfala tribe, and Sheikh Ibrahim Ben Nasr of the Magarha tribe. For Barghouti it was the first time he met with anyone from UNSMIL. For the past six years he had refused to do so.

This evening’s meeting followed Salamé’s return from Tripoli where  where he started the day meeting more than 30 members of the House of Representatives (HoR). He also met with representatives from the south of the country at which he promised to mobilise “all UNSMIL’s capabilities to better serve the people of the south”. As well as these there were meetings in Tripoli with members of the Constitution Drafting Assembly and with Italian ambassador Giuseppe Perrone.