On Sunday evening, Deputy Commander of the General Command, Lieutenant General Saddam Haftar, mourned “the heroes of the Armed Forces who were martyred while performing their national duty in confronting armed outlaw gangs on the southern border,” without specifying their number.

Haftar wrote on his Facebook page: “I extend my sincere condolences to the families, loved ones, and comrades of the martyrs, and I commend the tremendous sacrifices made by the men of the Armed Forces to protect the nation’s borders and defend its security and stability.”

Earlier, Lieutenant General Khalid Haftar, Chief of Staff of the General Command, mourned an officer killed “during clashes with armed gangs on the southern border,” according to a condolence message published by the General Staff on its Facebook page.

Clashes Coincided with Meeting Between Khalid Haftar and Al-Namroush

The General Staff of the General Command did not disclose any details regarding the incident, which coincided with a meeting in Sirte between Khalid Haftar and the Chief of Staff of the Western Region, Lieutenant General Salah al-Namroush, and members of the “5+5” Joint Military Committee and the “3+3” Military Committee, in the presence of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya.

Media outlets close to the General Command reported on Sunday evening that an attack launched by “Chadian opposition groups targeting an abandoned checkpoint on the border with Chad and Niger” had been repelled. This came after the so-called “Southern Liberation Operations Room” announced a “large-scale military advance toward the Al-Luwaigh military base” in southern Libya and the seizure of one of the military checkpoints in the area.