While the Al-Wefaq government forces continue to send reinforcements to the city of Sirte (450 km east of Tripoli) in preparation for the expected battle to recover from the forces of retired Major General Khalifa Hifter and his allies, expectations differed regarding the fate of the strategic city.
Al-Wefaq forces advanced about ten days ago, about 120 kilometers, to the outskirts of Sirte, but they faced minefields and were subjected to air strikes that caused losses in their ranks, which forced them to retreat to the Thirtieth Gate to become 50 kilometers from the city center.
Meanwhile, Libyan medical and military sources announced that three people, two of them from the Qaddhafah tribe, had been killed in Shabiya Al-Sittin town in Jarif district, in the city of Sirte, eastern Libya, as a result of a newly planted mine explosion.
These statements come hours after information broadcast by the Al-Wefaq government forces talked about the Russian fighters of Haftar and "Wagner" mercenaries laying mines in the fighting axes west and south of Sirte, to impede the ground progress of the reconciliation forces and delay their control of the city.
A source for Al-Jazeera Net said that the "Wagner" mercenaries focused on mining the Jarif area, which the reconciliation forces tried to invade, and walked through on the sixth of this month.
Al-Wefaq forces monitored the arrival of two Yushin planes loaded with mercenary fighters from Syria to fight with Haftar on the front axes west of the city of Sirte.
A military source told Al-Jazeera Net that the Syrian mercenaries had arrived through the "Wagner Company" coming from Hmeimim Air Force Base to Al-Qardabiya Air Force Base south of Sirte. Witnesses spoke that they were seen in the markets of the Al-Bouhadi area near Sirte.
Pending fighting,
and Al-Wefaq forces announced more than once that they had strengthened the presence of their forces west and south of Sirte with men and heavy and medium weapons, awaiting the orders of the Presidential Operations Room to launch an attack on the city.
Brigadier General Abd Al-Hadi Drah, the spokesman for the Sirte Jafra Operations Room, said that Al-Wefaq forces are ready for the Sirte and Al-Jafra battle after the arrival of military support from all the supporting forces, such as infantry, military engineering, rocket artillery, in addition to logistical support.
He added to Al-Jazeera Net, "We are awaiting the instructions of the supreme commander, Fayez al-Sarraj, to move towards Al-Jafra, or to Sirte, as required by the military plan."
A spokesman for the Sirte Al-Jafra liberation room did not rule out the existence of political consensus around Sirte, saying, "The battle may now be a military-political one and the two tracks are parallel, we are waiting and seeing."
Darah noted that "Sirte represents something special for the people of Misurata, after its people presented 771 martyrs in the Bunyan Al-Marsous process in 2016 to liberate it from the Islamic State, and more than 4 thousand wounded people between 2011 and 2016."
He added, "Sirte will be liberated and we will enter it at will, from father to father."
Mercenaries and mines
For his part, political analyst Faisal al-Sharif believes that the strengthening of the presence of Syrian mercenaries in Sirte by Russia and laying mines around it may be read in the direction of "the intention of the withdrawal of Haftar and mercenary forces towards the oil ports", without ruling out fierce military confrontations aimed at exhausting the reconciliation forces.
He added to Al-Jazeera Net that this would not give the forces of Haftar and the Russian mercenaries ready to advance towards the oil crescent, but would be satisfied with Sirte as the last point, and it might also be read in the direction of "surrounding Sirte with mines to prevent the entry of the reconciliation forces."
He assured Al-Jazeera Net that "Russia does not intend to abandon the Qardabiya and Al-Jafra bases, and this may prompt the strengthening of military intervention by NATO and America to help Turkey in order not to allow Russia to move its unannounced presence to an announced presence that exceeds what is acceptable, especially to Washington."
On the upcoming battle between the Al-Wefaq government forces and the Haftar fighters and the Russian and Syrian mercenaries, Al-Sharif said that the Russian and Turkish camps are gathering in preparation for any expected military operations, and at the same time they are trying to search for minimum understandings between the two parties.
He pointed out that the scene is not yet clear, and he did not formulate any vision of a road map to avoid confrontation, saying that "the reduction of the level of diplomatic coordination in this file between Russia and Turkey indicates complications that may suggest the start of violent military operations between the two parties in Sirte."