The siege of Derna was a military campaign by the
Libyan National Army
The Libyan National Army (LNA; ar, الجيش الوطني الليبي, ''al-jaysh al-waṭaniyy al-Lībii'') is a component of Libya's military forces which were nominally a unified national force under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa Ha ...
(LNA) to capture the city of
Derna, which began after the end of the
Derna campaign (2014–16) Derna may refer to:
__NOTOC__ Places
* Derna District, a district in eastern Libya
** Derna, Libya, a port city in that district
** Apostolic Vicariate of Derna, a Catholic pre-diocesan jurisdiction with see in that city
* Derna, Bihor, Romania, a ...
. After besieging the city for 21 months, the LNA assaulted the city on 7 May 2018, beginning the
2018–2019 battle of Derna and ultimately capturing the city on 12 February 2019.
The siege itself was criticized by the
National Commission for Human Rights in Libya as a
war crime, as well as by the
Government of National Accord
The Government of National Accord ( ar, حكومة الوفاق الوطني) was an interim government for Libya that was formed under the terms of the Libyan Political Agreement, a United Nations–led initiative, signed on 17 December 2015. Th ...
.
Timeline
The siege began in August 2016.
In August 2017–after militants of the
Shura Council of Mujahideen in Derna
The Shura Council of Mujahideen in Derna ( ar, مجلس شورى مجاهدي درنة) was a coalition of Islamist militias that advocated the implementation of Sharia law within Derna, Libya. Besides seeking to implement strict social mores in ...
executed Air Colonel Adel Jehani, whose plane was shot down by the group–the head of the Omar Mukhtar Operations Room tasked with taking Derna, Brigadier Salem Rifadi, declared a total blockade of Derna. He was quoted as saying that no food, medicine, cooking gas, petrol or anything else would be allowed in.
By September 2017, Marshal
Khalifa Haftar
Field Marshal Khalifa Belqasim Haftar ( ar, خليفة بلقاسم حفتر, Ḵalīfa Bilqāsim Ḥaftar; born 7 November 1943) is a Libyan-American politician, military officer, and the commander of the Tobruk-based Libyan National Army (LNA) ...
was being accused of war crimes in the siege of Derna. It was alleged that Haftar had been complicit in calling for extrajudicial killings, arguing that Haftar had called on LNA fighters to take no prisoners, and saying in a speech: "Never mind consideration of bringing a prisoner here. There is no prison here. The field is the field, end of the story".
In October 2017, an airstrike hit Derna, killing at least 15 civilians and wounding 17 or more.
In December 2017,
Islamic State
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
member Mohamed Fathi Al-Jamayel was executed by the Shura Council after a failed attempt to kill senior member Moaz Tashani.
On 7 May 2018, the LNA launched an
offensive on Derna, and by February 2019 had taken the city, thereby also ending the siege.
See also
*
Battle of Derna (disambiguation) Battle of Derna may also refer to:
* Battle of Derna (1805), a battle during the Tripolitan War
* Battle of Derna (1912), a battle during the Italo-Turkish War
* Battle of Derna (1941), a battle between Commonwealth and Italian forces during Wor ...
References
{{Reflist, 30em
Military operations of the Second Libyan Civil War
Derna, Libya