The forces of Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the strongman of eastern Libya, announced this Sunday the arrest in Oubari of one of the main officials of the Islamic State (IS) organization in the country, during an operation carried out at dawn in this southern city.
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According to a statement from Ahmad al-Mesmari, spokesperson for Haftar, the Marshal's forces carried out an operation targeting ISIS "
most prominent leader
" in Libya, Mohamed Miloud Mohamed, nicknamed Abu Omar, who resulted in his arrest.
In 2015, Abu Omar was among the main ISIS officials in Libya when the group took control of the city of Sirte, in the center of the country, the statement said.
ISIS had at the time made the stronghold of former leader Muammar Gaddafi its stronghold in this North African country, training fighters and planning attacks, in neighboring Tunisia in particular, before being driven out in 2016. .
Described as a "
dangerous terrorist
", Abu Omar maintained "
close links
" with Abu Moaz al-Iraqi, the head of ISIS in Libya, killed last September by Haftar's forces, it is specified in the text.
He is also accused of having kidnapped four Italian engineers in 2016, released after payment of a ransom estimated at four million euros, according to the same source.
Local media released images on Sunday showing a house they said was destroyed by an airstrike in the desert town of Oubari, located 900 km south of Tripoli.
Haftar's forces did not refer to any airstrikes.
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Libya sank into chaos after the popular uprising that brought down the Gaddafi regime in 2011. A major political crisis - with rival authorities in the east and west of the country - combined with a disintegration of the security apparatus, has favored the emergence of jihadist groups such as ISIS.
After the loss of Sirte and Derna in 2018, another jihadist stronghold in the east, ISIS was considerably weakened but its members retreated into the desert or merged with the population on the Mediterranean coast.
A new transitional government was recently set up to unify the country's institutions and is due to be sworn in on Monday.
