BBC in desperate attempt to deflect attention from Tripoli Military College attackers

Mohamed Youssri

The BBC has been actively trying to deflect attention from the real perpetrators of an attack on the Military College in Tripoli in January this year.

On August 28, the British broadcaster published a report in which it accused the United Arab Emirates of carrying out this attack.

Beginnings

The attack was launched on January 4. Left 28 Military College students dead and 33 others injured.

Media backing the prime minister of the Tripoli-based Government (GNA) Fayez al-Sarraj was quick to report the attack live. It initially attributed the attack to a shell falling on the college by mistake. The same media returned to claim that the attack was carried out by a drone.

The pro-GNA Anger Volcano militia then accused the Libyan National Army (LNA) of carrying out the attack. The media outlets of the Muslim Brotherhood also used the same attack in order to incite ordinary Libyans against the LNA. Their attempts in this regard paid off when protests erupted in Tripoli and other cities against the attack.

Real culprit

Head of the Morale Administration in the LNA Khaled al-Mahjoub denied links between the LNA and the attack.

He accused a group affiliated to Abdel Ghani al-Kakli, who backs al-Sarraj, of responsibility for the attack.

The attack aims to tarnish the image of the LNA, al-Mahjoub said.

He said the LNA would benefit nothing by attacking training sites.

This is not part of our doctrine, he said.

He said the pro-GNA militias try to implicate the LNA in attacks it did not stage, only with the aim of tarnishing its reputation.

Al-Mahjoub noted that the attack could have been carried out by mortar shells.

He added that when it strikes a target, the LNA air force collects intelligence about it to ensure that it is a military target.

We do not target individuals, al-Mahjoub said.