While a large part of Benghazi has fallen to Ansar al Sharia and allies including the Libya Shield and the February 17 Brigade, Operation Dignity vowed to defend a protest tonight against the Islamists. Ansar al Sharia, which claimed to have taken over the city, has destroyed Benghazi’s main police station, and no police, army, or special forces troops are visible. The brother of the special forces investigations head was shot dead yesterday. An NGO said fighting in July had killed 253 people in Benghazi and 130 in Tripoli. Planned pro-government demonstrations in Tripoli were sparsely attended. Over 10,000 Libyans fled to Tunisia over the past 24 hours. Operation Dignity forces bombed an Ansar al Sharia base in Adjabiya. Ansar is reportedly taking its wounded fighters to the Adjabiya hospital and then flying the severely wounded to Turkey via Misrata. Some 1,300 Koreans are quitting work at a Sirte power station due to insecurity; Turkish workers told to leave the country by Operation Dignity have recently returned to Sirte. Egyptian aviation authorities raised security precautions to the highest level due to reports that militants may have seized aircraft during the fighting at Tripoli airport and might use them to crash into targets in Egypt.
