The leaders and fighters of the Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries were aware that Haftar would destroy the city of Benghazi and blow up its historical buildings. Therefore, in January 2017, they agreed to an initiative to stop the war in the city and spare it from expanding its area of destruction and blowing up its buildings. As for Haftar, he chose to continue the armed confrontation and rejected the initiative presented by two mediators, one of whom was a civilian ( Libyan-American), and the other security from the western region.
The terms of the initiative provide for ending the war in Benghazi, for Haftar to stop his attack on the Qanfouda and Souk Al-Hout regions and hand them over to him in return for the safe exit of all fighters and families from the two regions, especially from Qanfouda, with international guarantees, by land or sea to the western region, and that the fighters and leaders of the Benghazi Shura leave all their weapons during Withdraw while ensuring their complete safety.
The leaders and fighters of the Benghazi Shura agreed to the initiative and informed the mediators that their acceptance of it was not out of fear or retreat from them. Rather, they are ready to continue fighting and armed confrontation until victory or martyrdom, but they want to spare the city of Benghazi from further destruction of large parts of it, especially the old areas and neighborhoods of Benghazi, which is a market. Al-Hout, Al-Sabri and Akhribish.
The military commander of the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council, Wissam bin Hamid, was martyred at the time, may God have mercy on him. The leader of the Benghazi Shura Council, Jalal Makhzoum, may God have mercy on him, was critically injured, which put him in a coma, from which he only wakes up a few times, and then passes out.
Haftar initially agreed to the initiative and asked the mediators for a pledge from the leaders and fighters of the Benghazi Shura Council not to join the Benghazi Defense Brigades after their withdrawal if they returned to attack him again. At the same time, Haftar asked for a 3-day period to think and respond, and during this deadline Haftar held a meeting with Abdel-Razzaq Al-Nadhouri and Al-Madani Al-Fakhiri to discuss the initiative.
According to the mediators, Al-Nadhouri and Al-Madani Al-Fakhiri were enthusiastic about the initiative and stopping the war, but Haftar changed his mind and stubbornly rejected it, asking the mediators to inform the leaders and fighters of the Benghazi Shura to surrender themselves completely, or he would kill them and not allow them to leave Benghazi, then he later informed the mediators that he agreed to the initiative on condition One, which is the complete exit of all fighters from Libya, not just from Benghazi.
Haftar rejected the initiative, although he had allowed only days before that the ISIS criminals to withdraw from Benghazi in one column with their weapons and equipment without firing a single bullet at them. And the dead Mahmoud Al-Warfalli.
The initiative collapsed and the armed confrontation had to continue. Haftar decided the battle of Qanfouda in his favor with the support of the regional aviation supporting him, during which leaders and fighters from the Benghazi Shura were martyred, and some of them succeeded in withdrawing from Qanfouda and reaching the areas of Souq al-Hout, al-Sabri and Sidi Khreibish.
During the days that followed, the aerial and artillery bombardment intensified fiercely on these areas, and it was random and systematic bombing, to cause destruction in the largest area and not to target the gatherings of the Benghazi Shura fighters. Before the initiative that was presented to Haftar to stop the war, the level of destruction in the “central country” did not reach 10% of the destruction that it was subjected to later, and the ferocity, intensity, and continuity of the bombing were not commensurate with the numbers of fighters that were decreasing every day, their number was in the dozens only, and the bombing did not target the contact lines and was focused on the city center and the waterfront of Benghazi in particular (the areas where currently being demolished).
The warplanes supporting Haftar from regional countries came collectively, several times to the point where a squadron of 5 warplanes carried out air strikes at the same time. The warplanes were randomly firing missiles and barrel bombs in an exaggerated and insane manner that did not target military sites, weapon stores or sites. The fighters of the Shura Council of Benghazi are stationed in it. The bombing was on the scorched earth method to cause mass destruction, and this is what actually happened and paved the way for the comprehensive demolition of the buildings of the city center that the people of Benghazi are currently witnessing.
On the sidelines:
1/ After presenting the initiative to Haftar, Abd al-Razzaq al-Naduri and Mahmoud al-Warfalli became enthusiastic about it and contacted one of the two mediators to ask about its seriousness. They were wondering about the extent of benefiting from this initiative, so they were informed that the withdrawal of the leaders and fighters of the Benghazi Shura would give them control over the land easily, and achieve victory without bloodshed and human losses. And material, (the military clan in their heads did not understand the initiative).
2/ A number of residents of the center of the country in Benghazi (Souk Al-Hout, Al-Aqib, Jamal Street, Misrata Street and Viatorino) confirmed to fighters from the Benghazi Shura during contacts with them that the people of Benghazi are aware that the destruction of the city center was random and premeditated and they are convinced that the fighters of the Benghazi Shura do not have a force Destructive enough to blow up a 7-storey building.
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