The Foreign Ministry asked the UN Security Council for help in protecting strategic sites such as oil facilities and airports. Suspected Islamist militants gunned down Fareha al-Barqawi, a popular former congresswoman, while she was stopped at a gas station in Derna. An Air Force colonel who was kidnapped by al Qaeda in Derna was released after a ransom was paid. The government threatened militia leaders with prosecution. In Benghazi, a sergeant died of injuries from clashes on July 14 between Saiqa Special Forces and Ansar al Sharia at Jalaa Hospital, and an imam who had retired from Saiqa was killed by a bomb attached to his car. The Islamist militia Libyan Revolutionaries Operations Room claimed that its allied forces had attacked the Tripoli airport to prevent Operation Dignity from flying Russian MiG fighter jets into the facility for use against the Islamist forces.
