Fighting in Benghazi and Derna intensifies
Reports overnight speak of a sharp rise in the level of attacks in Benghazi, where government troops are fighting ISIS.  Meanwhile the tortuous nature of Libyan politics can be seen in the ongoing fight against ISIS outside Derna, midway on the coast between Benghazi and Tobruk, where yet another coalition has been 'formed' to oust ISIS fighters to the south of the city. The New York Times article serves to underline the situation of a country slipping ever closer to civil war.

By Libya Herald reporters.

Benghazi and Tripoli, 23 September 2015:

After a 36-hour lull in the ground fighting, the Libyan army is reported . . .[restrict]to have launched heavy attacks around midnight on all IS positions in Benghazi.

When “Operation Doom” was launched three days ago the army made progress in the Bouatni and Hawari areas, overrunning the badly-damaged Hawari hospital. No casualty figure have yet been announced for government forces – both the Benghazi Medical Centre and Jalaa hospital have been discouraged from giving the media details of military casualties.

However, it is known that on Monday a soldier was shot by a sniper as he left a school building in Leithi which the army had just captured. The man later died in hospital. Subsequently, there were heavy salvos of artillery and tank fire toward IS positions, which an army source told the Libya Herald were in response to the soldier’s death.

In Bouatni the army is claiming to have retaken the Pepsi Factory area.

After the initial ground thrust on Monday, the air force has kept up a fairly consistent flow of bombing and straffing raids, always with a single aircraft. An army spokesman explained that this frequency of raiding meant that the IS and Ansar Al-Sharia could never relax and were always worrying about the next raid. One observer told this newspaper that the airstrikes had become more intense yesterday (Tuesday) and had seemed to target almost all IS and Ansar positions. [/restrict]