Miftah Bonawara: Terrorist of Ajdabiya after his arrest in eastern Libya

Mostafa Mohamed

Despite Libyan terrorist Miftah Bonawara’s desire to enter his hometown of Ajdabiya, where he had carried out his terrorist activities with the Ajdabiya Revolutionaries Shura Council before fleeing years ago during confrontations with the Libyan National Army, infiltrating under the pretext of selling his house, the security forces arrested him during a raid on his house and took him for investigations regarding his involvement in terrorism.

Constant terror

Bonawara is one of the most prominent leaders of the Ajdabiya Revolutionaries Shura Council, a militia that carried out numerous terrorist operations against the Libyan National Army (LNA) and controlled the city, along with other terrorist militias, at a time when the people lived in constant terror from those militias.

Bonawara is believed to be the father of the fugitive terrorists Kilani, Mohamed and Shahat Bonawara, in addition to the terrorist Ahmed Bonawara, who was killed in strikes by Libyan warplanes in late November 2015.

The terrorist militias that controlled Ajdabiya continued to launch attacks for a while despite the LNA’s liberation of cities in eastern Libya during Operation Dignity in 2014.

Killing of his two sons

Bonawara’s son, Ahmed Miftah Bonawara al-Zwai, one of the most prominent elements of the Ajdabiya Revolutionaries Shura Council, was killed in raids by Libyan warplanes during battles with the LNA in late November 2015. Ahmed’s brother, Kilani Miftah Bonawara al-Zwai, another prominent leader of the Ajdabiya Revolutionaries Shura Council, was also killed as a result of the airstrikes launched by the Libyan air forces during the liberation of those areas from terrorism, which included various militia locations in Ajdabiya.

Spearhead of terrorism

Miftah Bonawara participated in many operations against the Libyan National Army in Benghazi and Ajdabiya since 2014 as part of the Ajdabiya Revolutionaries Shura Council. Accompanied by Abrek Younes Mazak al-Zwai, known as Abrek al-Masri, he participated in operations to bring terrorist elements to Libya, especially from Mali and Algeria, to fight against the LNA.

After the army took control of Ajdabiya, Bonawara, along with Abrek al-Masri, contributed to the establishment of the Benghazi Defense Brigades, which was allied with several terrorist organizations, headed by al-Qaeda, and launched several terrorist operations targeting Libyan army concentrations in the Oil Crescent region and the Brak El-Shati Airbase.

Terrorist brigades

Numerous accusations and crimes followed Bonawara, the most prominent of which was his participation in the attack carried out by the Benghazi Defense and Ajdabiya Liberation Brigades, affiliated with al-Qaeda, in July 2016, which was thwarted by the Libyan army at the time. He was also present among the terrorist elements that launched an attack on LNA concentrations in the Oil Crescent region in 2018, and at that time he was forced to flee to the city of Misrata in the west of the country, where he was detained by armed groups.

Bonawara’s fall

Following the terrorist operations launched by the Ajdabiya Revolutionaries Shura Council, Miftah Bonawara, his son Nageh Bonawara, and others, including Abrek al-Masri, Mohamed al-Nawfali, and Radwan al-Qabisi, were arrested on charges of terrorism at a farm in the Sikt area by Misrata’s Combatting Organized Crime force on October 11, 2017. However, they were released under pressure from influential figures in Misrata who were supporting extremists in eastern Libya.