Libya kills 3 highly dangerous terrorists, including Egyptian

CAIRO- 19 January 2019: Three most dangerous terrorists, affiliated with the Islamic state terrorist group (IS), were killed by Libya's National army (LNA) on Friday in Libya, LNA said in a statement.

The LNA launched a military operation against militants in southwestern city of Sebha, 640 kilometers south of Tripoli, killing the three militants (one Egyptian and two Libyans), said LNA spokesperson Ahmed Al-Mesmari in the statement.

“It would be a great military achievement, if the Libyan army managed to liberate southern areas from terrorists and armed groups…The killed terrorists [are] prominent Libyan Qaeda leader known as Abu Talha al-Libi, al-Mahdy Deqno and Egyptian fugitive Abdalah al-Desoky,” Mesmari said.

Al-Libi was one of the most dangerous wanted terrorists in Libya. He was accused of having links with al Qaeda group and its affiliates in sub-Saharan African countries.
In 2013, Al-Libi moved from Libya to Syria, where he joined IS and carried out several terrorist attacks. A year later, he and his wife returned to Libya, according to the statement.

The LNA announced launched a wide-scale military operation on Tuesday to liberate southern Libya from terrorists and to protect the country's oil fields from extremists’ takeover.

Since the outbreak of the 2011 uprising in Libya, that thwarted late Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, Libya has suffered chaos and security vacuum.