HRW: Russia’s Wagner Group Set Landmines in Libya

Libyan deminers stand around a pickup truck with boxes of dismantled mines and remnants of other explosives in Salah al-Din, south of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, June 15, 2020. AFP
Libyan deminers stand around a pickup truck with boxes of dismantled mines and remnants of other explosives in Salah al-Din, south of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, June 15, 2020. AFP
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HRW: Russia’s Wagner Group Set Landmines in Libya

Libyan deminers stand around a pickup truck with boxes of dismantled mines and remnants of other explosives in Salah al-Din, south of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, June 15, 2020. AFP
Libyan deminers stand around a pickup truck with boxes of dismantled mines and remnants of other explosives in Salah al-Din, south of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, June 15, 2020. AFP

The Wagner Group, a private Russian military security contractor, has used banned landmines and booby traps near Tripoli, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday.

“New information from Libyan agencies and demining groups links the Wagner Group to the use of banned landmines and booby traps in Libya in 2019-2020,” it said in a report.

HRW therefore called on the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, to examine the role of Libyan and foreign armed groups in laying antipersonnel mines during the conflict.

“These mines killed at least three Libyan de-miners before the mines’ locations were identified,” HRW stressed.

Lama Fakih, HRW Middle East and North Africa director, said the Wagner Group added to the deadly legacy of mines and booby traps scattered across Tripoli’s suburbs that has made it dangerous for people to return to their homes.

“A credible and transparent international inquiry is needed to ensure justice for the many civilians and deminers unlawfully killed and maimed by these weapons,” she said.

Fakih added that antipersonnel landmines, which are designed to be exploded by the presence, proximity, or contact of a person, violate international humanitarian law because they cannot discriminate between civilians and combatants.

HRW’s report said the mines and booby traps found at the 35 coordinates were hidden inside homes and other structures, in some cases inside furniture and were often activated with a tripwire that was not visible.

Mine experts also told the NGO that the mines and booby traps apparently constructed by Wagner operatives were more sophisticated and lethal than those laid by Libyan, Sudanese, or Syrian groups.

According to the Libyan Mine Action Center, LibMAC, of the 130 people killed and 196 injured in Libya between May 2020 and March 2022 by mines and other explosive ordnance, most were civilians in Tripoli’s southern suburbs.

In this regard, Fakih said, “Independent of an international inquiry, Libyan courts need to impartially investigate and appropriately prosecute commanders and fighters – including foreigners – for war crimes in Libya.”

Meanwhile, the Libyan Oil and Gas Ministry warned on Tuesday from the outcomes of closing the country’s major oil fields and ports on Libya’s economy and the infrastructure of the oil sector.

A committee formed by the ministry to investigate the closure of oil ports and fields confirmed that civilian groups are not connected to the closure process.

“A military entity is behind the shutting down of oil fields. This entity is represented by the Petroleum Facilities Guard, which took instructions from certain political parties,” it said.



Raided West Bank City Holds Funerals after Israeli Army Withdraws

Mourners carry the bodies of two of four Palestinians during their funeral following an Israeli operation at Nur Shams refugee camp near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, 13 September 2024. (EPA)
Mourners carry the bodies of two of four Palestinians during their funeral following an Israeli operation at Nur Shams refugee camp near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, 13 September 2024. (EPA)
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Raided West Bank City Holds Funerals after Israeli Army Withdraws

Mourners carry the bodies of two of four Palestinians during their funeral following an Israeli operation at Nur Shams refugee camp near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, 13 September 2024. (EPA)
Mourners carry the bodies of two of four Palestinians during their funeral following an Israeli operation at Nur Shams refugee camp near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, 13 September 2024. (EPA)

The families of Palestinians killed in an air strike in the occupied West Bank city of Tubas held funerals on Friday after Israeli forces withdrew following their latest raid in the territory.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Wednesday that its forces were engaged in a "counter-terrorism operation" in the area of Tubas, in the northern West Bank.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the military withdrew Thursday evening, allowing the funerals to go ahead.

The four men buried in Tubas on Friday were killed in an air strike at dawn on Wednesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.

A fifth fatality from the same strike was buried on Friday in Tamoun, also in the northern West Bank.

The Israeli military said in its Wednesday statement that Israeli aircraft had "struck and eliminated a terrorist cell consisting of five terrorists armed with explosives who posed a threat to (Israeli) forces".

On Friday morning, hundreds of people walked through the streets of Tubas alongside the four bodies hoisted on stretchers and wrapped in white cloth.

Some in the crowd waved the green flag of the Palestinian movement Hamas and gunfire punctuated the chants of the mourners.

"I woke up in the morning to the sound of an explosion," Ahmed Sawafta, father of one of the dead men, told AFP, describing the strike on Wednesday.

"My brothers came and told me that Yassin had been martyred," he said, referring to his son.

Osaid Kharaz, who identified himself as a Hamas activist, told AFP at the funeral that Israel "is attempting to impose a new reality and undermine the popular support for the resistance (to Israeli occupation) in the West Bank."

- 'Full strength' -

The military will use its "full strength" to strike Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on September 4, amid a large-scale operation in the north of the territory that killed dozens.

Israeli forces this week also carried out operations in the northern West Bank governorate of Tulkarem.

The Palestinian Red Crescent and the health ministry both reported that one volunteer paramedic and a young woman were killed during an Israeli raid there on Tuesday.

The health ministry also reported three killed near Tulkarem city on Wednesday "as a result of an Israeli air strike on a vehicle". The Palestinian Red Crescent gave the same toll.

The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad said in a statement that the three killed in the strike were its fighters.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday its air force had "conducted an aerial strike during the counter-terrorism operation" in Tulkarem, without specifying the target or reporting casualties.

Wafa reported that Israeli forces also withdrew from Tulkarem on Thursday and that funerals were held there on Friday.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and has ramped up deadly raids in the territory since Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel sparked the war in Gaza.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 679 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by the Israeli military or settlers since October 7.

At least 24 Israelis, including security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks in the territory during the same period, according to Israeli officials.