CAIRO (AP) — A notorious militia leader in Libya, sanctioned by the U.N. for migrant trafficking across the Mediterranean Sea, was killed on Friday in a raid by security forces in the west of the country, according to Libyan authorities.
Ahmed Oumar al-Fitouri al-Dabbashi, nicknamed Ammu, was killed in the western city of Sabratha when security forces raided his hideout. The raid came in response to an attack on a security outpost by al-Dabbashi's militia, which left six members of the security forces severely wounded, according to a statement issued by the Security Threat Enforcement Agency, a security entity affiliated with Libya's western government.
Al-Dabbashi, who was also sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for trafficking, was the leader of a powerful militia, the “Brigade of the Martyr Anas al-Dabbashi,†in Sabratha, the biggest launching point in Libya for Europe-bound African migrants.
Al-Dabbashi’s brother Saleh al-Dabbashi, another alleged trafficker, was arrested in the same raid, added the statement.
In June 2018, the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on al-Dabbashi, along with another five Libyan traffickers. At the time, the U.N. report said that there was enough evidence that al-Dabbashi's militia controlled departure areas for migrants, camps, safe houses and boats.
Al-Dabbashi himself exposed migrants, including children, to “fatal circumstances†on land and at sea, and of threatening peace and stability in Libya and neighboring countries, according to the same report.
Al-Dabbashi was also sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for the same reason.
Libya has been a fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. The country was plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat .
The country has been fragmented for years between rival administrations based in the east and the west of Libya, each backed by various armed militias and foreign governments.
