To enhance security measures on its borders with restive neighboring countries, Egypt has requested to buy U.S. “Border Security Mobile Surveillance Sensor Security System,” at the cost of $100 million, said U.S. Department of Defense (Pentagon) in a statement Wednesday.

The system includes “mobile surveillance sensor towers, mobile command and control (C2) systems, a regional C2 system, voice/data communications equipment, spare parts, support equipment, personnel training, training equipment, publications and technical documentation, U.S. Government and contractor technical and logistics support services, and other related elements of logistics and program support,” the statement added.

The U.S. Department of State has approved the procurement, while the U.S. Congress has been notified of the sale Tuesday.

“This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country that has been and continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East,” the statement read.

The Pentagon said the security system is essential for the security guards who lack “any remote detection capability along unpatrolled areas of Egypt’s borders.”

Egypt is facing possible “terrorist” threats from Libya where Islamic State (IS) group militants have bases and hideouts. In February, IS released a video purporting to show the beheading of 21 Egyptian Copts kidnapped in Libya.

The Border surveillance system could help in thwarting any possible infiltrations of militants along the eastern borders with Gaza strip, particularly following the recent series of attacks against military and security checkpoints in North Sinai.

On June 17, Egyptian Naval fleet received two U.S. Fast Missile naval vessels to secure the maritime navigation of Suez Canal, said the U.S. embassy in Cairo.

Relations between Egypt and its ally soured when the U.S. partially suspended its annual $1.5-billion aid, following the 2013 dispersal of the pro-Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins that demanded the reinstatement of President Mohamed Morsi’s.

In April 2014, relations improved when the Pentagon announced that the suspended aid would be released. In November 2014, Egypt received the suspended 10 Apache fighter jets.

Before Islamist militants attacked the Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid last week, they smothered it with largess.

There have again been heavy clashes in Benghazi during the past two days particularly in the downtown area, in Suq Al-Hout and neighbouring Sabri, where there has been direct fighting. In Hawari and other affected districts, the clashes have been more a case random but nevertheless deadly missile fire.

At least 12 people were reported died today – four soldiers killed in action, although the Libya National Army (LNA) has not said where, and eight as a result of random rocket attacks. Mostly civilians, the latter were killed in and around Buhdeima and include four brothers, in their 20s, named as Tariq, Salah, Mansour and Hamza Ramadan Al-Arafee, from the city’s Hay Al-Zawia (previously known as Hay Al-Fatah).

The others have been named as Walid Ibrahim, Khaled al-Fakhri (an off-duty member of Saiqa forces), Zaki Al-Barani and Awad Ibrahim Al-Awkali.

Random rockets have also landed in Salmani, Ard Zuwawa, Fuwayhat and Hadaiq. They are believed to have been fired mainly from Hawari. Very early this morning a rocket landed near the Children’s Hospital, opposite the Benghazi Medical Cenntre.

Meanwhile LNA aircraft today targeted militants’ positions in the city centre and Leithi.

It was reported that three residents – two young women and an older man – had been killed in Beirut Street in central Benghazi as a result of random shelling and 20 ther injured. Jalaa Hospital has denied their deaths saying the three were injured.

Libyan Islamist-backed parliament General National Congress (GNC) on Tuesday rejected a United Nations peace proposal to form a unity government for Libya.

“The draft accord given by Bernardino Leon, head of the UN mission to Libya, is not the satisfactory state for us to initial it,” Omar Hemidan, spokesman of the GNC, announced the decision in a press conference.

Libya has been witnessing a frayed political process after the 2011 turmoil which toppled its leader Muammar Gaddafi. The country is now juggling two rival parliaments and governments.

According to Libya’s transitional plan, the June-elected parliament, the House of Representatives (HOR), has already replaced the former interim General National Congress (GNC).

However, the armed Islamist alliance Libya Dawn, which has achieved a series of military progress since July in western Libya, backed the GNC to resume power and form its own government against the new one.

Since last September, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has been struggling to solve the political jigsaw puzzle in Libya by brokering peace talks, but the endless clashes between different armed groups and lack of genuine desire to reach a political solution made the UN efforts fruitless.

In a landmark move, representatives from Libya’s two rival parliaments sat together in formal talks about the draft accord for the first time on June 28 in Morocco.

The Libyan House of Representatives formally accepted last Thursday the UN proposal to end war in Libya, while the GNC decided to continue consultations on the latest UN proposal in Tripoli.

Algeria’s Defense Ministry says that 102 extremists have been killed, arrested or have turned themselves in during the first half of the year.

In a summary of action against terrorism, the official APS news agency quoted the ministry Tuesday as saying that large quantities of arms and munitions were seized.

Most of the terrorists, 66, were neutralized on the outskirts of the capital, Algiers, and the Kabylie region to the east, the zone where al-Qaida’s North African wing is headquartered. Another 17 were neutralized south of Algiers in the Sahara region, APS quoted the ministry as saying.

It didn’t specify how many of the 102 were killed.

Algeria was brought to its knees in the 1990s by Islamist extremists with an estimated 200,000 people killed in the chaos.

Tunisia has started constructing a concrete wall along its border with Libya to prevent the Islamic State militants from entering Tunisian territory, the country’s Prime Minister Habib Essid said Tuesday.

In a new strategic shift in its fight against extremists in Libya, the Libyan National Army has begun deploying fast-moving ground-troop units in a bid to counter the spread of insurgents throughout the war-torn country.

The army says that in addition to ground troops, the newly formed units also include military intelligence personnel and employ lighter vehicles and weapons than larger army units previously used.

An army spokesman told Asharq Al-Awsat the units are also working closely with local tribal groups in order to secure territory, much of it now lawless.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Libyan military sources said the strategy, in place since May, had been effective in helping determine the location of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the former military commander of Al-Qaeda’s North African branch, who was killed in a US airstrike in June in the eastern city of Ajdabiya.

The army is battling a host of different extremist groups in Libya, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

ISIS fighters were recently forced out of the eastern coastal city of Derna, which was captured by the group last October. Libyan army official Salah Al-Din Abdul Karim told Asharq Al-Awsat the new strategy had proven effective here.

A team of 20 soldiers, five commanders, and three military intelligence officials using light weapons and 4×4 vehicles instead of tanks had successfully helped oust a number of ISIS fighters from the city, also killing seven.

However, Abdul Karim said the army was still having difficulty fighting groups such as ISIS in the country due to their “continuing to obtain weapons and fighters via the sea, even until today.”

“[The extremists] are receiving support from the sea in full view of European fleets [in the Mediterranean],” he said, adding that there were “specific countries who are insisting on supporting terrorism in Libya.”

The Egyptian armed forces have killed four “terrorists” and arrested another in restive North Sinai amid a military campaign against militants following a series of attacks against security outputs, said military spokesperson Mohamed Samir Tuesday in a statement.

The four terrorists were killed when military forces destroyed their truck while attempting to escape in Al-lifitat area of al-Sheikh Zuwayed city, Samir added.

The forces also arrested a militant, Eid Salem, at a military checkpoint; he was driving a truck loaded with weapons, according to Samir.

On July 1, the attacks targeted 15 military and security checkpoints, killed 17 personnel and more than 100 militants were killed in subsequent clashes.  Islamic State (IS) affiliate in Egypt, Sinai Province, has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Since then, 241 terrorists have been killed; four “fugitive terrorists” and 29 suspects have been arrested, and 26 trucks used in militant attacks have been destroyed, Samir said Monday

Libya Dawn and Libyan National Army (LNA) fighters traded missile fire yesterday after the latter tried to take control of a remaining part of Ajilat district known as the Suq and which is still controlled by the former.

After LNA support forces – mainly Warshafani and Zintani fighters –launched the bid, Dawn fighters based in Sabratha, less than ten kilometres away, started firing grad missiles, according to a LNA source. A child whose family had been evacuated from elsewhere is said to have been killed and members of another family injured when missiles hit their homes.

After they had pulled out, the LNA support forces then started targeting Sabratha with missiles, causing damage on a local resident’s house, but no known casualties.

Last night, according to the source, the LNA reinforced its positions in Ajilat, expecting a counter attack from Libya Dawn. This, however, did not occur.

A Sharia court set up by the Shoura Council of Mujehideen in Derna (SCMD) has sentenced six members of the Islamic State (IS) to death for their alleged involvement in a number of killings and attacks in the town.

The six – four Libyans and two foreigners – have been named as – Salem Al-Saadi, Attia Al-Debani, Ahmed Abu Sidra, Abdul Salam Shnaib, Jibril Asheikh and Rafiq Badr.

They were found guilty of the murder of two female members of the Harir Al-Mansouri family, sisters Zakia and Naima, who were killed with other members of the family last April, as well as of the killing of Sheikh Faraj Al-Huti and a colleague, referred to simply as Sheikh Nasser. They were also found guilty of bombings, kidnappings and an attack on a shop.

It is not known if the executions have already been carried out.