European Union Discusses Ways to Monitor Libyan Borders

Head of the EUBAM Natalina Cea meets with Libyan military officials. (Twitter)
Head of the EUBAM Natalina Cea meets with Libyan military officials. (Twitter)
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European Union Discusses Ways to Monitor Libyan Borders

Head of the EUBAM Natalina Cea meets with Libyan military officials. (Twitter)
Head of the EUBAM Natalina Cea meets with Libyan military officials. (Twitter)

The European Union Border Assistance Mission in Libya (EUBAM Libya) discussed with military officials in the country ways to secure the borders.

Head of the EUBAM Natalina Cea said she discussed joint cooperation in monitoring and securing the border.

Illegal migration and organized crime are challenges across Libya’s vast borders.

Cea and Commander of the Border Guard Training Center Brigadier General Fawzi Al-Fiqi visited the center, which is being renovated by EUBAM.

Meanwhile, the Specialized Training Institute of the General Directorate of Security Operations of the Government of National Unity (GNU) concluded the first training course in the field of “Collection, Analysis and Exchange of Information”.

Libya’s Interior Ministry said the course is part of efforts to raise the efficiency of border guards and officers from other units under the General Directorate of Security Operations.

Meanwhile, head of the GNU Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah met on Saturday with Minister of Transportation Mohammed Al-Shahoubi and various officials and airlines' representatives.

The meeting focused on obstacles in the aviation sector, said a statement from Dbeibah’s office. The minister welcomed Dbeibah’s interest in improving the sector.

Shahoubi explained that 15 Libyan Airlines and eight Afriqiyah Airways planes were completely destroyed during past wars, while more than 14 planes need maintenance.

He also said a number of administrative and technical problems are hindering their return to the fleet.



Toll in Syria Opposition-army Fighting Rises to 242

Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
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Toll in Syria Opposition-army Fighting Rises to 242

Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)

More than 240 people, mostly combatants, were killed as intense fighting approached Syria's northern Aleppo city after the opposition launched a major offensive on government-held areas this week, a monitor said Friday.
On Wednesday, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied Turkish-backed factions launched an attack on government-held areas in the northwest, triggering the fiercest fighting since 2020, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said fighting reached two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the main northern city of Aleppo, where the group’s artillery shelling on student housing killed four civilians, according to state media.
"The combatants' death toll in the ongoing... operation in the Idlib and Aleppo countrysides has risen to 218," since Wednesday, said the British-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria.
In addition to the fighters, it said 24 civilians were killed.
Syrian ally Russia launched air strikes that killed 19 civilians on Thursday, while another civilian had been killed in Syrian army shelling a day earlier, said the Observatory which on Thursday had reported an overall toll of about 200 dead, including the civilians.