Worthy Christian News » World News » Civil War in Libya: Jihadists Seize Benghazi

Civil War in Libya: Jihadists Seize Benghazi

BENGHAZI (Worthy News)-- Fighting in Libya escalated Thursday as Islamic militias claimed to control the country's second-largest city, Benghazi, while foreigners and U.N. workers continued their exodus in what increasingly is looking like a full-blown civil war, the Washington Times reported.

The Islamic hard-liners’ announcement in Benghazi marked a defeat for the forces of renegade Gen. Khalifa Hifter, who for months has pursued a self-declared campaign to stamp out armed militant groups. Once firmly in control of the eastern port city, Gen. Hifter’s troops now appear to hold only the airport on Benghazi’s outskirts.

The militants who overran the city belong to a new umbrella group called the Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries that includes Ansar al-Shariah, the al Qaeda-inspired group accused by the U.S. of leading the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on a diplomatic facility and CIA annex that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. -- Source