عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News

Clashes in Sirte, Sarraj Discusses with Military Commanders Unifying Army

Fayez al-Sarraj addresses a news conference at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium February 2, 2017. Reuters
Fayez al-Sarraj addresses a news conference at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium February 2, 2017. Reuters
TT
20
TT

Clashes in Sirte, Sarraj Discusses with Military Commanders Unifying Army

Fayez al-Sarraj addresses a news conference at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium February 2, 2017. Reuters
Fayez al-Sarraj addresses a news conference at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium February 2, 2017. Reuters

Clashes erupted Tuesday between the Libyan UN-backed government forces and militants in Sirte city, and eight of the gunmen were arrested.

"Members of the security force of Sirte suffered minor injuries after besieging a site in Jaref area in Sirte and clashing with an armed group. Eight gunmen were arrested," the government forces of Sirte said in a statement on Tuesday.

The media center of the government forces, headed by Fayez al-Sarraj and part of what is known as al-Bunyan al-Marsous operation, did not specify the identity of the detained militants or reveal whether they belonged to ISIS, which controlled the city, or any other groups.

Notably, the statement said that copper stores and power cables were found in the site.

ISIS affiliates in December 2015 were defeated and expelled from Sirte, some 450 km east the capital Tripoli, by forces allied with the UN-backed government and backed by US air force. After that, the remaining ISIS militants fled to southern valleys and mountain areas.

The terrorists set up mobile security checkpoints from time to time on the road leading to southern cities and checked civilian cars passing by, in search of soldiers or security personnel to kidnap.

On the other hand, and upon the surprising visit of Malta’s Foreign Minister Carmelo Abela to Tripoli, Sarraj expressed his government's desire to develop channels of communication between the two countries to coordinate the smuggling operations and support cooperation in the political, economic and service fields.

Minister Abela expressed Malta’s desire to have a Maltese Resident Ambassador present in Tripoli once again in order to make cooperation and assistance more effective, efficient and tangible.
Malta had withdrawn its ambassador in the wake of continued violence in the Libyan capital.

Sarraj also met on Monday military officials in the presence of members of the committee, which represented his government in meetings held in Cairo recently, with a delegation of the national army led by Haftar, to discuss the unification of the military establishment in the country.

Sarraj’s office issued a statement explaining that during a meeting with the Chief of Staff and leaders of his military establishment, Sarraj stated that the course of unification of the army will be completed successfully by means of a political consensus.

He pointed out that for a unification to be successful, Libya needs to halt the actions of some political and military players that are continuously attempting to disrupt and undermine efforts to achieve this consensus.

The meeting also discussed the findings of the Presidential Council’s committee at the Cairo meeting with their counterparts from the eastern region to discuss the unification of the military establishment in Libya and its relationship with the civil authority.

Most Viewed

 
Varieties

Uruguay Confronts a Powerful New Threat to Its Palm Trees: A Tiny Red Bug 

A bird perches on the trunk of a dead palm tress, near Peaje Mendoza, in Florida, Uruguay, Wednesday, July 9, 2025, as thousands of palm trees in the South American country have been devoured by the red palm weevil since its unexplained arrival from Southeast Asia in 2022. (AP)
A bird perches on the trunk of a dead palm tress, near Peaje Mendoza, in Florida, Uruguay, Wednesday, July 9, 2025, as thousands of palm trees in the South American country have been devoured by the red palm weevil since its unexplained arrival from Southeast Asia in 2022. (AP)
TT
20
TT

Uruguay Confronts a Powerful New Threat to Its Palm Trees: A Tiny Red Bug 

A bird perches on the trunk of a dead palm tress, near Peaje Mendoza, in Florida, Uruguay, Wednesday, July 9, 2025, as thousands of palm trees in the South American country have been devoured by the red palm weevil since its unexplained arrival from Southeast Asia in 2022. (AP)
A bird perches on the trunk of a dead palm tress, near Peaje Mendoza, in Florida, Uruguay, Wednesday, July 9, 2025, as thousands of palm trees in the South American country have been devoured by the red palm weevil since its unexplained arrival from Southeast Asia in 2022. (AP)

Palm trees in Uruguay are more than just plants, they are icons, much like olive groves for Greeks or cherry blossoms for the Japanese.

The treasured trees lining one of the world’s longest sidewalks through Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital, and adorn the swanky Atlantic beach resorts of Punta del Este have recently come under ruthless attack.

Across the small South American country, palm trees are falling prey to a fierce enemy measuring just 5 centimeters (2 inches) in length: The red palm weevil.

First the elegant fronds droop. Then the tell-tale holes appear in the trunk. Soon enough, the tree is tilting toward collapse.

The weevil has devoured thousands of Uruguay’s palm trees since its unexplained arrival from Southeast Asia in 2022. But authorities are only now waking up to the threat as the landscape of municipalities transforms and fears grow that the country's beloved palms could be wiped out.

“We are late in addressing this,” Estela Delgado, the national director of biodiversity at Uruguay's Ministry of Environment, acknowledged last month. “But we are doing so with great commitment and seriousness.”

The insect and its devastating impact can be found in 60 countries around the world but nowhere else in South America. Authorities first detected it in the town of Canelones, bordering Montevideo, where the insect killed more than 2,000 palm trees in less than a month.

Weevils quietly wreak destruction by boring through the open scars of pruned palms and laying hundreds of eggs inside. When larvae hatch, they tunnel through trunks and eat up the trees’ internal tissue. Death strikes within weeks.

The Uruguayan government set up a task force to combat the plague in March. In May, Environment Minister Edgardo Ortuño declared the fight against the red palm weevil “a national priority.”

As of this year, the red bug has proliferated in eight of the country's 19 regions, including Montevideo. Half of the capital's 19,000 palm trees have been infected, estimates Gerardo Grinvald, director of pest control company Equitec, which helps authorities combat the bug.

The insect first attacks decorative Canary palms, the tree in so many pictures of Uruguay’s sunny landscape, before moving onto its date palms.

“It’s an invisible pest,” Grinvald said, explaining the challenge of identifying an infestation when it starts. As a result, landowners fail to isolate and quarantine their trees, fueling the weevil's crawl across the country.

The Montevideo municipality this year earmarked $70,000 for chemical pesticide sprays and insecticide injections meant to kill bugs inside infested trunks, with the goal of saving some 850 trees in the city’s prominent Parque Rodó, a scenic urban park along the coast.

In the southeast corner of Uruguay, home to Punta del Este, a beachy, palm-fringed haven for jet-set elites from all over the world, authorities recently allocated $625,000 for efforts to dispose of infected trees and lure weevils away from affected areas with pheromone traps and other methods.

“We are losing our palm trees,” lamented Montevideo resident Rafael dos Santos as he walked his dog in Parque Rodó. “They are historic in Uruguay, and a part of us.”

As the weevil's march continues unabated, authorities now fear native trees of Uruguay's UNESCO biosphere reserve bordering Brazil will fall victim next, potentially facilitating the spread of the parasite across an unprepared continent.