UN-sanctioned migrant smuggler killed in western Libya

CAIRO (AP) — A notorious Libyan militia leader, 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 main transit point for migrants 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 Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The country has been fragmented for years between rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments.