Various branches of the Libyan National Army participated in the maneuver, and included a plan to eliminate 1,000 terrorists inside a city, the army said in a statement.
Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, attended the exercise, and delivered a speech in which he said: “We cannot be reassured as long as there is terrorism in the country. We and terrorism cannot coexist, and there must be a determination to get rid of terrorism in the coming period.”
Haftar refers to the militias that are widely spread in western Libya, and have controlled the capital, Tripoli, and state institutions and public utilities there since 2014, as well as militias and gangs that are stationed in the south, taking advantage of its vast desert area.
Clearing an occupied city
According to what was monitored by the “Sky News Arabia” correspondent, paratroopers, ground forces, air defense forces, tanks, armored vehicles and rocket launchers participated in the maneuver.
A source from the army told our correspondent that the method used during the maneuver is similar to the tactic used by the army in liberating Benghazi from the two terrorist groups, “The Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries” and “Ansar al-Sharia”, which seized cities in eastern Libya after the 2011 protests.
The maneuver included artillery and air bombardment on one of the sites, followed by the landing of paratroopers, then a ground incursion and the imposition of a tight siege and the liquidation of terrorist elements, after monitoring operations carried out by drones.
It also witnessed incursions into some narrow streets in the middle of residential buildings where terrorists usually take shelter.
The Libyan political analyst, Sultan Al-Baroni, told “Sky News Arabia” that the Libyan National Army is the main nucleus that must be built upon to establish an organized army capable of repelling any aggression against Libya.
On the reason for the stability of eastern Libya compared to the rest of the regions, he believes that this is “normal for the presence of one armed force in the east, unlike the presence of rival mercenary militias in the west, which are only interested in power and money.”
danger sensing
In the estimation of the political analyst, Samer Al-Athabi, these maneuvers “showed the military leadership’s sense of the danger around us.”
He explained that the arms embargo imposed on the army is “totally unacceptable. All events revealed who is fighting for Libya and who is fighting for himself.”
Despite this ban, the maneuvers indicated that “the army enjoys a high degree of professionalism and readiness, and that it is the only one that can be relied upon, as it has a combative doctrine that is to protect the homeland.”
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