FM Dayri congratulates rival on battling Daesh

The foreign minister of Libya's internationally recognised government congratulated the rival Fajr Libya alliance for having taken on fighters from Daesh group in the country.
Mohamed al-Dayri was speaking a day before Libya's rival parliaments were to resume UN-sponsored talks in Morocco on forming a national unity government and bringing an end to the violence wracking the oil-rich North African country.
Speaking to journalists at his home in the eastern city of Al-Bayda, Dayri said he "welcomed favourably the course taken by factions of Fajr Libya who are fighting the Libya branch of Daesh in Sirte."
That position reinforces "one of the principal bases of national consensus to which we aspire... which is the battle against terrorism."
He was referring to sporadic combat since Saturday around Sirte, home town of slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi, who was toppled in a 2011 NATO-backed revolt.
At least 12 militiamen were killed Wednesday in clashes with Daesh near Sirte, a stronghold of the jihadists, who have controlled large areas around it since February.
Fajr Libya is an alliance of militias including Islamists that has installed a government in Tripoli opposed to the internationally recognised legislature and cabinet based in the eastern city of Tobruk.
Daesh, which already controls large swathes of Iraq and Syria, has been receiving pledges of allegiance from jihadist groups in Africa and has established a presence in Libya.
In January, its fighters killed nine people in an assault on a luxury hotel in Tripoli popular with diplomats and foreign business people.
And last month, it released a video showing the beheading in Libya of 21 Coptic Christians, mostly Egyptian migrant workers.
Libya has been plagued by chaos since the end of the 2011 revolt, with heavily armed militias battling for control of its cities and oil wealth and the rival parliaments and their governments vying for power.
UN-brokered talks between the parliaments on the formation of a unity government had been due to resume in Skhirat, Morocco on Thursday, but are now set for Friday, journalists there said.
Source: AFP