Thirty-four-year-old Ali al-Sanaani, imam and preacher of the al-Hisabat al-Askariyah Mosque in the Sidi Hussein area in Benghazi city, was met with a hail of bullets as he left the mosque after leading the people in the Fajr (morning) prayers on the first day of Ramadan. His name was the first on the list but it was followed by many others who have been killed during this holy month.
Thirty-four-year-old Ali al-Sanaani, imam and preacher of the al-Hisabat al-Askariyah Mosque in the Sidi Hussein area in Benghazi city, was met with a hail of bullets as he left the mosque after leading the people in the Fajr (morning) prayers on the first day of Ramadan. His name was the first on the list but it was followed by many others who have been killed during this holy month.
There have been at least 25 cases of murder and assassination in Benghazi since Ramadan began on June 28. After al-Sanaani, Musa al-Majbari was shot dead after the al-Taraweeh prayers on the very same day.
Some are assassinated, others die in quarrels and fights. Corpses are found from time to time by security investigation offices or by passers-by who notice dead bodies. Circumstances surrounding the victims’ deaths are unknown and in some cases, it is difficult to identify the identity of the victims.
“Criminals usually do not respect the sanctity of the month of Ramadan,” said Benghazi Joint Security Room spokesman Ibrahim al-Sharaa. “The number of killed people during this month is the best evidence.”
Confused security situation
Al-Sharaa added that “the security situation in Benghazi is distorted and confused despite the revival of the work of security apparatuses which has led to the arrest of a number of criminals in some serious crimes.”
However, he explained that “the attack launched in May on the National Security Directorate and the army special force Thunderbolt 21 battalion has made the military units withdraw towards defensive positions with the aim of protecting themselves.”
Al-Sharaa claimed that security services, both police and army, were under “ferocious attack” and their members had become targets the moment they started to deploy in the streets. “These two apparatuses have lost many of their members when they went to the streets to maintain security in the city,” said al-Sharaa.
Indiscriminate shellings
On the second day of Ramadan Ibrahim Gharbiyeh, a member of the Libyan air force was killed and the fourth day of Ramadan saw the assassinations of the imam of Abdallah Abed’s mosque, an investigation officer at the criminal investigation department and his companion. All were shot dead by unknown assailants.
The fifth day of Ramadan was one of the bloodiest in Benghazi, with 10 people killed, among them were: a mosque’s imam, an Interpol interpreter, a colonel in the Air Force, in addition to four people who died when a rocket landed on the car they were driving. The day ended with news about two corpses found near the Jira area south of Benghazi.
Diverse ways of killing
Some victims have been killed by indiscriminate shelling on the city after the start of ‘Operation Dignity’, led by the retired Major General Khalifa Haftar. The operation is using the air force to strike Ansar al-Sharia sites, according to Haftar.
This is not to mention the victims who die as a result of internal fighting, which has also become so common in most areas of the city. Recently, five unidentified corpses were found in the Jaroutha area west of Benghazi, where there was internal fighting.
With the increase in the number of unidentified bodies, al-Sharaa said that these are kept in the morgue for long periods of time. On the procedures taken, he said that the operation room prepares minutes and primary investigative reports to document the crime. It also takes photos of the victims and DNA samples from the corpses in order to later identify the victim.
Al-Sharaa also said that there are many investigations that have been suspended indefinitely and added that criminal evidence which relies on finger prints and dogs do not exist in Benghazi, making investigations even more challenging.
A tense situation
Muhammad al-Saeeti, spokesman for the crisis managing committee in Benghazi, said the security situation there is very tense.
Although the security file has been repeatedly discussed during the committee’s meetings, the latest was attended by Salah al-Marghani, Minister of Justice, who is tasked with presiding over the Council of Ministers Office in Benghazi. Yet al-Marghani said these meetings did not yield any results that could “lift the city out of its deep murder quagmire.”
Al-Saeeti believes the security file did not receive sufficient support from the interim government. He told Correspondents that he had asked the justice minister to provide this file with enormous support in order to restore security in the city.
In the same context, al-Saeeti held a series of meetings with the different parties to the conflict as represented by the leaders of Ansar al-Sharia and the leaders of the Operation Dignity launched by the retired Major General Khalifa Haftar in order to find solutions to areas exposed to shelling.
A loose statement
The interim government issued a statement calling the security and military institutions in Benghazi to perform their national duty and to deploy in the streets in order to protect the city.
Among the demands of the government mentioned in the statement is the exit of all parties of the conflict from the city, but the statement did not distinguish between the party tasked with protecting the city and the party wreaking havoc.
The statement added that the fighting in the city, which has been taking place over a long period of time, and during which all kinds of weapons were used even in residential areas, has led to many deaths and injuries among civilians and also disrupted life of the city. However, no solutions were proposed in the government statement.
Mutual accusations
Operation Dignity, which was initially launched to put an end to assassinations and killings in Benghazi, has become one of the direct causes of death in the city.
Although the leaders of the operation earlier announced that they arrested five members of al-Qaeda accused of involvement in the assassinations, which targeted members of the army and the police, the Shura Council of Benghazi’s rebels said that it would imprison any person involved in the Operation by participation, support or mobilization.
The council has also started to accuse other parties of acts of killings and assassinations and stressed that there is no chance to release any detainee held by the Shura council unless all the detainees in the prisons of the Operation Dignity followers were released.
A black hand
Sheikh Hassan al-Sharif, a founding member of Libya’s Scholars, said assassinations are condemned at all times, in Ramadan as well as in other months.
“Is Islam, assassinations are acts of murder and they are more offensive than the acts of (random) killings.” He also says that create hostilities and hatred between tribes, factions and friends.
He believes it is impossible to determine who is committing these assassinations without investigations.
“Accusing one party and not the other is a crime because there are many parties involved in the acts of assassination. There are many radical groups and there are black hands which are working to sow dissent among the people of the one nation,” he said.
