The Haftar-led National Libyan Army (NLA) has managed to defeat the Shoura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries and almost entirely controls the city and its suburbs, except for some sporadic fighting, particularly in Qawarshah District – a residential and industrial area located west of the city and the key stronghold of jihadist groups.

The Haftar-led National Libyan Army (NLA) has managed to defeat the Shoura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries and almost entirely controls the city and its suburbs, except for some sporadic fighting, particularly in Qawarshah District – a residential and industrial area located west of the city and the key stronghold of jihadist groups.

While the decisive victory of the NLA is looming near, Buslim Brigade militia, which has come to be called the Shoura Council of Derna Revolutionaries (SCD) defeated Islamic State, (IS) in Derna. Non-idelogized, supportive young people from the city joined them, forcing IS to flee the city along desert roads towards Sirte.

Haftar’s opponents condemned him for his failure to use warplanes to bomb IS convoys with tens of military vehicles during their sudden withdrawal from Derna to Sirte. They groundlessly accused him of collaborating with IS. News reports showed the NLA seizing many destroyed vehicles of IS convoys and several dead bodies on the sand.

The commander of the NLA Operation Room which is cordoning off Derna from all directions says SCDR armed men are still loyal to al-Qaeda and there is no essential difference between al-Qaeda and IS. This is why the NLA General Command issued a statement calling upon SCDR fighters to surrender their arms and enable the NLA to enter the city.

When the SCDR refused, Haftar’s helicopters bombed their forces and arsenals. Photos were published documenting the injury of civilians. This bombing was like an announcement considering Derna the second (major) battlefield after Benghazi.

From a military perspective, Derna has fallen. It is surrounded from all directions except by sea, which is monitored and controlled. Nonetheless, the decisive battle is in Sirte.

It is expected that Haftar’s forces will move to Sirte when the battle of Benghazi ends. On their way, they will pass Ajdabiya where Haftar’s forces eliminated extremists. They will also pass the militia of Ibrahim Jadhran who is controlling oil ports and opposing Operation Dignity. It is expected that Jadhran will lose the emirate of oil port piracy and Haftar’s forces will reach Sirte, west of Cyrenaica.

The Islamic militias controlling Tripoli, especially their major force in Misurata, consider the triumph of the forces coming from eastern Libya over IS in Sirte and its suburbs as their defeat. This is why the emir of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group Abdelhakim Belhadj said he and his supporters would not allow Haftar to move towards Sirte: “It is we who will control it,” said Belhadj.

The two parties will confront each other at Sirte. Political cards are being mixed and military alliances are being concluded on a tribal and regional basis. While the forces coming from the west deem Operation Dignity a counterrevolution led by Haftar, (in alliance with military and political leaders of the supporters of the defunct regime), the forces coming from the east, (supported by Cyrenaica tribes and other tribes in western and southern Libya), consider the Islamic groups controlling Tripoli outlaw militias that refuse the establishment of a national army and support terrorism.

Enforcing the Skhirat Agreement and empowering the Government of National Accord is no more than political fantasy.