Libyan army deploys additional forces in Oil Crescent

The Libyan National Army (LNA) has ordered an immediate investigation after scores of corpses with bullet wounds were been found beside a deserted road near a town 50 kilometres south-west of Benghazi.

Some 36 bodies were discovered last night near Al-Abyar after locals told the LNA of their location. It is unclear when the victims were killed nor how people in the town came to know of the murders.

The dead are thought to be Libyan citizens. A security source was quoted by the Chinese news agency Xinhua saying that the bodies had been taken to Benghazi Medical Centre for forensic examination.

There are allegations that the slain men were terrorist suspects. This apparent mass murder follows the videoed evidence of extra judicial killings featuring Major Mahmoud Warfali of the LNA’s Saiqa Special Forces. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a warrant for Warfali’s arrest and extradition to stand trial in the Hague.

The LNA insisted at the time that armed forces commander-in-chief Khalifa Hafter had already ordered the Saiqa officer’s arrest. Hafter had also initiated an investigation into the seven videoed murders in which a man looking like Warfali plays a prominent role in the summary execution of 33 men.

However, there were unconfirmed reports last week that Warfali may have been involved in a gunfight at Hamdi restaurant in Benghazi’s Gwarsha district in which an Egyptian member of staff was killed.  Last month,  the ICC questioned if Warfali was indeed still detained. At the beginning of the month he had been linked to five fresh murders  this time in Ajdabiya.

In the same context, Libya's eastern-based army, led by General Khalifa Haftar, deployed additional troops in the Oil Crescent region after Islamic State (IS) militants launched attack on an army checkpoint in northeastern Libya, an army source said on Thursday.

"Army Commander, General Khalifa Haftar, ordered deployment of additional forces in the Oil Crescent region to increase security in the vital area, following recent attack launched by IS in Ejdabia," the source told Xinhua.

"There are joint deployments of the Oil Installations Guards and the Operations Chamber of Ejdabia, particularly 152 infantry battalion, to secure the region after the terrorists fled on Wednesday towards desert area near the oil fields and ports," the source added. "We have detected suspicious movements of terrorists around the region. We are fully prepared to deal with them," the source said.

IS launched an attack on Wednesday on an army checkpoint near in the eastern city of Ejdabia, some 16 km south of Benghazi, killing two soldiers and injuring three others. The Oil Crescent region is located some 500 km east of the capital Tripoli. It contains the country's largest oil ports. The Libyan army forces took control of the region in November 2016 after expelling militias that were occupying it.