Libya Dismantles Network Involved in Beheading of Copts

Head of investigations for the Attorney General's office Sadiq Al-Sour. AFP photo
Head of investigations for the Attorney General's office Sadiq Al-Sour. AFP photo
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Libya Dismantles Network Involved in Beheading of Copts

Head of investigations for the Attorney General's office Sadiq Al-Sour. AFP photo
Head of investigations for the Attorney General's office Sadiq Al-Sour. AFP photo

A Libyan official revealed on Thursday that the authorities have dismantled a network that had carried out several terrorist attacks in the country, mainly the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians from Egypt in Sirte in February 2015.

Sadiq Al-Sour, head of investigations for the Attorney General's office, said in a press conference he held in the Libyan capital Tripoli that authorities had arrested a senior ISIS commander who supervised the beheadings.

"He gave details on the incident and indicated their place of burial," Sour said. "We are seeking with military authorities in the central region to discover where the bodies are, and hopefully we will find them, despite the time that has passed."

Investigators learned that ISIS had established a "desert army" led by Libyan militant Al-Mahdi Salem Dangou, also
known as Abu Barakat, Sour said. The force includes three brigades operating under Dangou, each with its own commander.

"This army was established after the liberation of the city of Sirte... Now they are in the Libyan desert," said Sour.

Al-Sour said security forces have also detained militants who were involved in the 2012 attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi, which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

“Among them were several Egyptians,” who had been receiving direct orders from al-Qaeda leader Ayman and Zawahiri, he added.

On the fate of missing Tunisian journalists Sufian Shuwarbi and Nathir Gutari, the chief prosecutor said that the two men had been killed by ISIS.

Meanwhile, Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano told the Senate foreign affairs and defense committees that he would visit Libya for talks with Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, his deputy and the Libyan foreign minister.



Displaced Syrians Who Have Returned Home Face a Fragile Future, Says UN Refugees Chief

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (R) meeting with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in the Syrian capital Damascus on June 20, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (R) meeting with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in the Syrian capital Damascus on June 20, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
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Displaced Syrians Who Have Returned Home Face a Fragile Future, Says UN Refugees Chief

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (R) meeting with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in the Syrian capital Damascus on June 20, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (R) meeting with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in the Syrian capital Damascus on June 20, 2025. (SANA / AFP)

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Friday that more than two million Syrian refugees and internally displaced people have returned home since the fall of the government of Bashar al-Assad in December.

Speaking during a visit to Damascus that coincided with World Refugee Day, Grandi described the situation in Syria as “fragile and hopeful” and warned that the returnees may not remain if Syria does not get more international assistance to rebuild its war-battered infrastructure.

“How can we make sure that the return of the Syrian displaced or refugees is sustainable, that people don’t move again because they don’t have a house or they don’t have a job or they don’t have electricity?” Grandi asked a small group of journalists after the visit, during which he met with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and spoke with returning refugees.

“What is needed for people to return, electricity but also schools, also health centers, also safety and security,” he said.

Syria’s near 14-year civil war, which ended last December with the ouster of Assad in a lightning opposition offensive, killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million.

Grandi said that 600,000 Syrians have returned to the country since Assad’s fall, and about another 1.5 million internally displaced people returned to their homes in the same period.

However, there is little aid available for the returnees, with multiple crises in the region -- including the new Israel-Iran war -- and shrinking support from donors. The UNHCR has reduced programs for Syrian refugees in neighboring countries, including healthcare, education and cash support for hundreds of thousands in Lebanon.

“The United States suspended all foreign assistance, and we were very much impacted, like others, and also other donors in Europe are reducing foreign assistance,” Grandi said, adding: “I tell the Europeans in particular, be careful. Remember 2015, 2016 when they cut food assistance to the Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, the Syrians moved toward Europe.”

Some have also fled for security reasons since Assad's fall. While the situation has stabilized since then, particularly in Damascus, the new government has struggled to extend its control over all areas of the country and to bring a patchwork of former opposition groups together into a national army.

Grandi said the UNHCR has been in talks with the Lebanese government, which halted official registration of new refugees in 2015, to register the new refugees and “provide them with basic assistance.”

“This is a complex community, of course, for whom the chances of return are not so strong right now,” he said. He said he had urged the Syrian authorities to make sure that measures taken in response to the attacks on civilians “are very strong and to prevent further episodes of violence.”

The Israel-Iran war has thrown further fuel on the flames in a region already dealing with multiple crises. Grandi noted that Iran is hosting millions of refugees from Afghanistan who may now be displaced again.

The UN does not yet have a sense of how many people have fled the conflict between Iran and Israel, he said.

“We know that some Iranians have gone to neighboring countries, like Azerbaijan or Armenia, but we have very little information. No country has asked for help yet,” he said. “And we have very little sense of the internal displacement, because my colleagues who are in Iran - they’re working out of bunkers because of the bombs.”