44 Haftar loyalists killed in June

Forty-four soldiers allied with Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar were killed in June, according to a medical source in the city.

The troops were killed in Benghazi during fighting with militants in the Al-Sabri and Soug Al-Hout districts which were the last militant strongholds in Benghazi, according to Hani Al-Aribi, the spokesman for the health ministry in eastern Libya.

Haftar’s forces have retaken most of Benghazi from militants. The city has been war-ravaged since a militant takeover in 2014.

Read: UAE violates embargo and sends arms to Libya’s Haftar

Since Libya’s revolution in 2011, lawlessness and a power vacuum has allowed militant and tribal groups to dominate the political scene leading to lawlessness in the country and a diminishing security situation.

However, according to the spokesman of Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), Khalifa Al-Abidi, “significant progress” has been made in Benghazi with the “terrorists” pushed back to an area of two square kilometres.

This week, Haftar called on his forces to increase efforts to “liberate the city of Benghazi from terrorists”.