“Libya Dawn” Islamist movement orders Qaaqaa and Sawaq brigades to leave Tripoli

By Moutaz Ali Tripol, Libya Herald

July 13, 2014

A new military movement, calling itself “the Force of Security and Settlement in Libya”, is demanding that the Qaaqaa and Sawaq brigades leave Tripoli immediately. Mirroring General Khalifa Hafter’s Operation Dignity against Ansar Al-Sharia and Islamist-leaning brigades in Benghazi, it says it has set up an operation named as “Fajr (Dawn) Libya” to remove the Qaaqaa and Sawaq brigades from the capital city.

It says it considers the Qaaqaa and Sawaq brigades as illegal brigades, although the two Zintani units are recognised by the Libya government as part of the Libyan army. If the two brigades refuse to leave, the media office of “Fajr Libya” said, they would become outlaws and enemies of the 17 February Revolution.

Despite the demands, the new movement claims to support the government and being in favor of basing the new House of Representatives in Benghazi. It accuses Qaaqaa and Sawaq of trying to control the capital and sabotage the democratic process in Libya.

In response to the Fajr Libya demands, the Qaaqaa and Sawaiq brigades sent out an alert calling on members to report for duty.

For its part, the Libyan Revolutionaries Operations Room (LROR), which is believed to be an integral part of the new movement, put out an urgent call to all its members to report to the 27 April barracks (near Zawia) at 9 pm last night.