900 migrants rescued off the coast of Libya by coast guards

Libyan coast guard have rescued 900 migrants on five boats and they include 98 women and 25 children. The recuse happened roughly seven miles off the coat of Sabratha. The mix of the migrants is African and Arab origins with three Libyans.
They were in rubber boats that were perforated and submerged, and there was also a large wooden boat minus any engine. The rescue operation lasted more than seven hours.
This is reported in thestatesman.com dated 17 June 2017.

Incidentally, the coastal city of Sabratha, which is situated 75-Km west of the capital Tripoli, is believed to be one of the busiest illegal immigration departure points in Libya. Italian coast guards have revealed that more than 1,000 migrants were rescued from a total of nine rubber and wooden boats off the coast of Libya.
According to International Organization for Migration, this rescue adds up to a total of 9,111 migrants that have been rescued in Libyan waters in this year.


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900 migrants rescued off the coast of Libya by coast guards

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Migrant boat capsizes off Libya's coast - 100 feared dead

The Italian coast guards have indicated that a migrant boat capsized about 30 miles off the coast of Libya and, at least 100 migrants are missing and presumed to be dead. Four survivors have been rescued and eight bodies recovered so far, as per officials who are coordinating the rescue effort.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 15 January 2017.

French and Italian naval and merchant vessels apart from a plane and a helicopter were involved in rescue operations but poor conditions were hampering the search. The boat was believed to have carried 110 people as indicated by a spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Incidentally, in the previous 24 hours, coast guard and naval ships and privately-owned vessels had saved nearly 750 migrants who attempted to cross the Mediterranean in rickety boats and, at least five people have died in the process.
According to government figures, a record number of 181,000 boat migrants, mostly from Africa, have reached Italy in 2016 and, most of the boats and migrant ships set off from Libya's lawless coasts because people smugglers can operate with impunity.


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Violence in Sirte between ISIS and pro-government militiamen kills at least 60

Fierce clashes in Libya between pro-government militiamen and ISIS jihadists in the city of Sirte and an explosion at a depot near the capital, Tripoli, has left more than 60 dead in just one day. Sirte is believed to be the last bastion of the ISIS group in the North African country and the latest clashes led to the death of 36 militiamen aligned with the newly-UN brokered government. They are mainly from the western town of Misrata and have been leading an offensive since early May to take full control over Sirte.
Along with the 36 militiamen killed, mostly in direct gun battles with ISIS jihadists, Misrata hospital spokesman has indicated that another 140 were wounded in the violence.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 22 June 2016.

ISIS jihadists have apparently gone into hiding at its headquarters in Sirte where the sprawling Ouagadougou convention center had been built by late dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The city was also Gaddafi's birthplace and the city he fled to during the 2011 civil war, when Libyan rebels backed by NATO bombings forced him out of the capital, Tripoli.
Simultaneously, an explosion at a depot in the town of Garabuli, near Tripoli, followed clashes with militias and killed 29 civilians. The clashes here took place between militiamen in charge of the town security and armed local protesters. It seems when the protesters stormed the militia's barracks, the depot exploded - it housed firecrackers, not ammunition.


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Nearly 4000 migrants fleeing from Libya rescued from the Mediterranean Sea

As indicated by the Italian coastguard, nearly 4,000 migrants have been rescued from the Mediterranean Sea even as tens of thousands of migrants continue to flee Libya and head towards Europe. The total may be a record in spite of the fact that around 4,400 migrants were pulled from unseaworthy boats in the region in a single day in August last year.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 27 May 2016.

Some 20 bodies were spotted in the sea while a spokesman of the Libyan has said that 766 migrants were rescued by the Libyan coastguard. Another 550 were found near the coastal city of Sabratha and 216 off Zwara. As per reports of Interpol last week, another 800,000 migrants in the lawless north African country are waiting for an opportunity to make the journey to Europe.
A study has claimed that people smugglers were organized in loosely connected networks and they continue to facilitate passage of migrants to Europe - the annual turnover of migrant smuggling was believed to have been in excess of $5bn in 2015.
Incidentally, annual EU net migration to the UK is of the order of a record 184,000 - this is based on the last immigration figures to be released before Britain votes in the EU referendum. This figure is an increase of 10,000 on the previous year, according to the Office for National Statistics. The number of migrants arriving at Calais has started to rise in recent weeks. This has led to apprehensions of another summer of humanitarian problems and cross-Channel disruption.


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President Obama says US will counter terrorists anywhere in the world

#BarackObama #ISIS #libya #NationalSecurityCouncil #terrorists President Barack Obama is determined to root out the evils of terrorism and has said that the US will continue to counter terror plotters of Islamic State militant group where ever they may be. He said this while directing his national security team to intensify its ongoing counter-terrorism campaign in order to destroy the terror outfit.
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1,000 British troops and Special forces going to Libya to eliminate ISIS jihadists

Britain is getting ready to deploy up to 1,000 troops and Special Forces to Libya in a bid to help wipe out Islamic State jihadists. Therefore, military officials are examining plans to send soldiers to the country to help train Libyan security forces to fight militants taking over the region. They will follow a team of soldiers who will be deployed to Libya to carry out a 'scoping' mission.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 17 December 2015.

These British troops would be deployed in a non-combat role, elite SAS members would be armed to take out high-value ISIS targets. The tentative plan envisages that British military personnel would contribute to a 6,000-strong Italian-led mission to train and support local forces.
Of course, this deployment would mean boots on the ground in an area where six SAS men were captured during an operation in 2011, months before the death of Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi.
Britain and Italy have joined up with the European Union and the United Nations on a plan to support the new government by rebuilding the state and training security forces. The Special Forces could also be sent to Libya to spearhead military operations that would target human traffickers who are exploiting migrants who want to make the perilous crossing to Europe.
The SAS would interact with specialist forces from other EU countries and help to zero-in and pinpoint the leaders of ruthless gangs, as also the vessels they are using and the routes they take.

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ISIS targets Indians in Libya – four teachers returning to India kidnapped

ISIS have now targeted Indians - four Indian teachers who were returning to India from Tripoli and Tunis have been abducted in Libya. This has allegedly been done by the Islamic State (IS) terror group as reported in telegraphindia.com dated 31 July 2015.
Two of the Indians are from Hyderabad, one is from Raichur and one from Bengaluru. Three of them were faculty members at the University of Sirte and one was working at the Sirte University's branch in Jufra.

This has been informed by the Ministry of External Affairs MEA.
As per information, all of them were “detained” at a checkpoint about 50-Km from Sirte, an area that is under the control of the terror outfit.
It seems on 29 July the Indian mission in Tripoli learnt about the fact that four Indian nationals who were returning to India via Tripoli and Tunis, had been detained at a checkpoint approximately 50-Km from Sirte. Further details are awaited from the Head of Mission in Tripoli.
In this connection it may be noted that this incident came even when 39 Indians continue to be missing in Iraq. They had been taken hostage last year at the height of the fighting between Sunni militants and government forces and efforts by the Indians to get them released have yet to yield any result.
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British Navy flagship HMS Bulwark rushes to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean Sea

Nearly half a million refugees are assembling in Libya to try and flee to Europe on the migrant boats that have killed thousands already. Thousands of them have already left in boats are believed to be stranded in the Mediterranean Sea.
This has been revealed by senior Royal Navy officers who are leading Britain's Mediterranean rescue mission off the Libyan coast.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 7 June 2015.

British flagship HMS Bulwark is reported to be on its way and is speeding across the Mediterranean to help rescue thousands of migrants who are stranded at sea having after having undertaken the dangerous journey from Libya to Europe.
In the opinion of HMS Bulwark's Captain, there are from 450,000 to 500,000 migrants in Libya who are waiting at the border and this is not going to stop in the near future.
The HMS Bulwark is a 19,000 tonne ship and it has on board more than 80 British personnel. It is moving at 15 knots and it has two Merlin helicopters flying ahead on surveillance missions – it can, and has, spotted another migrant boat.
Not just HMS Bulwark but there are 11 other vessels on their way to carry out a major rescue operation – it seems the migrants had set off in order to take advantage of the good weather.
Some of them have been rescued by the German Navy frigate Hessen and are at at an unspecified location in the Mediterranean Sea.
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Libyan car bomb kills at least 30 in a gas station in Qubba

#CopticChristians #Egypt #ISIS #Qubba #Libya #carbomb #gasstation There are reports of a car bomb that struck a town in eastern Libya which is, at present, under control of the country's internationally recognized government. At least 30 people were killed in the attack and an army spokesman has put the blame on Islamic militants. This has been reported in foxnews.com dated 20 February 2015.
The bombing has taken place after a video had surfaced that showed the beheading of 21 abducted Egyptian Coptic Christians at the hands of Libya's branch of the Islamic State group. This has resulted in Egypt carrying airstrikes on IS positions in Libya. It also raised fears that the extremist group has spread its tentacles beyond the battlefields of Iraq and Syria and had set up a major strategic foothold closer to European shores.
In the latest attack, the suspected Islamic militants had bombed a gas station that was packed with motorists in the town of Qubba which is located approximately 19 miles from the city of Darna. This is believed to be a stronghold of Libya's Islamic State offshoot.
It seems the motorists had lined up to fill their tanks at the station, which is located next to the town's security headquarters, when the attack took place and scores of people were also wounded in the attack.

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President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi wants UN to authorize world powers to intervene in Libya

#ISIS #copticchristian #egypt #libya #derna The whole world has been appalled by the brutal killing of 21 Egyptian Christians at the hands of the ISIS and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi wants a United Nations resolution that would allow international forces to intervene in Libya as reported in bbc.com dated 17 February 2015.
President al-Sisi has apparently told the French radio that there was no other choice and that Egypt cannot be a silent spectator to such brutalities. ‘We will not allow them to cut off the heads of our children’, is how he put it. He has demanded that weapons should be made available to Libya's internationally recognized government, which had fled to Tobruk after rival militias seized power in the capital.
Subsequent to the release of the militant video of the apparent beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians, Egyptian jets have carried out bombing of IS targets. The targets had been Islamic State camps, training sites and weapons storage areas near the city of Derna. As per military sources, the strikes would continue and there was no need for ground troops at present.
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