Tripoli: Libya’s new army chief of staff on Monday declared “war on terrorists” as he was sworn into office after parliament selected him to tackle unrest sweeping the north African nation.
Abdul Razzak Nadhuri, promoted to general when he took up his new role, spoke as Libyan militant group Ansar Al Sharia urged other Islamists to unite under its banner.
“Allow me to declare, from this moment on, war on obscurantists, terrorists and takfiris [extremists],” said Nadhuri, whose predecessor General Abdul Salam Jadallah Al Abidi was sacked by parliament.
Nadhuri, from the town of Marj, 1,100km east of Tripoli, took up his post in the violence-plagued country as Libya’s foreign minister and his counterparts from neighbouring states met in Cairo to discuss the Islamist threat.
Ansar Al Sharia, which Tripoli and Washington have both branded a “terrorist” organisation, urged other Islamists to beware what it dubbed Western plots aimed at “opposing the mujahideen under the pretext that they are extremists”.
“Unite with the mujahideen in Benghazi so together we can defend the same objective — a total rejection of any Western plan” for Libya, it said in an online message.
“Proclaim that your struggle is for Sharia [Islamic law] and not democratic legitimacy, so the world unites under the same banner to bolster the forces of good against the forces of evil,” it added.
