Johannesburg – Another five soldiers from the Libyan National Army (LNA) have been killed, and more than 15 wounded, as the bloody siege of an apartment building in the Ganfouda area of Benghazi in eastern Libya continues.
Holed up inside the building are Islamic State (IS)-affiliated extremists who have been battling LNA forces from inside the building since last week, the Libya Herald reported.
The bloody clashes in Ganfouda are part of the Battle of Benghazi, one of the many civil battles raging across Libya since former dictator Muammar Gadaffi was overthrown and killed in 2011.
The battle, which began in 2014, pits the Islamic Fundamentalist Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries and the IS against the LNA. Last week, the LNA declared that Ganfouda had been flushed clean of the extremists.
However, an unknown number of the jihadists are continuing to put up fierce resistance – despite the targeting of the apartment building by the Libyan Air Force – resulting in the rising death toll among LNA forces.
Furthermore, the LNA is also battling other pockets of resistance in the Sabri and Suq Al Hout districts of Benghazi. On Wednesday, soldiers uncovered a mass grave in Ganfouda which contained an unknown number of bodies.
Forensic experts are now examining the corpses, some of which appear to be quite recent. It is unclear if the dead are terrorists, civilians or captured members of the LNA.
Meanwhile, wounded LNA personnel are being treated in Russia following the January visit of Libyan armed forces commander-in-chief Khalifa Hafter to the Russian carrier Admiral Kuzentsov, anchored off the Libyan coast.
A source at Benghazi's Benina airport told Reuters that 70 wounded troops had been flown to Egypt from where they had been taken on to Russia for treatment. In the past, injured soldiers who could not be treated in Benghazi or Tobruk were flown to Egypt or Tunisia.
The precise number of dead and wounded extremists has not been confirmed but the LNA reports killing, capturing and wounding hundreds.