Army leader Khalifa Haftar has launched an operation against Chadian fighters in southern Libya, which could destabilise the wider Sahel region just weeks before Libya’s elections in December.

The War Division Information department of the Khalifa Hafter-led Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) (formerly known as the LNA) confirmed earlier reports of clashes with Chadian opposition forces in southern Libya yesterday.

Libyan authorities arrested two suspected human traffickers and facilitated the return of more than 50 Egyptian migrants to their home country, officials said.

The CIA is upgrading its presence in the African desert, by expanding a secret base deep in the African desert, to monitor Islamist extremist groups, including Al-Qaida and ISIS, thought to be operating from Libya, The New York Times reported.

Libyan authorities yesterday detained a suspect for “torturing irregular Egyptian immigrants and extorting their families to obtain money.”

Confirming the arrest in Bani Walid of ISIS leader Embarak Khazmy, the Attorney General/Public Prosecutor’s Office yesterday revealed some of the charges Khazmy faces. These include:

The Libyan government announced today the arrest of a high-profile member of ISIS, Embarak Al Khazmy, in the city of Bani Walid.

The Libyan Crime Watch (LCW) has called on the Government of National Unity (GNU) and official authorities in eastern Libya to end the disturbing phenomenon of kidnappings and enforced disappearances.

An investigation by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, The New Arab’s Arabic-language sister publication, has shed light on a drug-smuggling network between Syrian and Libyan ports led by a convicted criminal with dual nationality who works in eastern Libya with the support of Khalifa Haftar’s allies.

The Libyan Interior Minister Khaled Mazen has denied the Tunisian claims that there are terrorists in Al-Watiya airbase (AB), urging in a letter to the Head of the Interpol Office for a reply to Tunisian authorities that such a claim is baseless.