The trial of 77 people in Tunisia charged with involvement in a militant attack that killed eight soldiers was adjourned Monday after the defence asked for more time to prepare, wrote Arabnews.

Only six of those charged are in custody: 70 more, among them around 50 Algerians, will be tried in absentia. Another is not in detention.

“The trial was postponed until May 18 for oral arguments to be heard,” said Rafik Ghak, the lawyer for four of the defendants.

One high-profile defendant is Seifullah Ben Hassine, alias Abou Iyadh, a Tunisian rebel chief and Afghanistan veteran Tunisia says has fled into neighbouring Libya.

The 77 are being tried for their alleged role in an ambush on July 29, 2013 in which the eight soldiers were killed on Mount Chaambi near the border with Algeria.

If convicted, they could be sentenced to death, despite Tunisia no longer carrying out capital punishment.
The defence argues that those in custody are minor accomplices who did not realise they had ties with an armed group responsible for dozens of deaths in army and police ranks since December 2012.

“The detainees in this case… are virtually unknown,” Ghak said. “They were trapped and did not realise the scale of the operation or the magnitude of the crime.”

Since the January 2011 revolution, Tunisia has experienced militancy that has killed dozens of members of the security forces.

On March 18, tourists were targeted for the first time, with 21 foreigners and a policeman killed by two gunmen at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

An explosion has taken place at or near Hamas’s Internal Security HQ at the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza, Arab sources told Israeli newspaper Maariv Tuesday. The newspaper estimated that the blast I slinked to the arrest of an ISIS man in Gaza, following the fighting between ISIS and Palestinians in the Yarmouk camp in Damascus.

Initial reports of casualties were later denied and the media said no one was hurt. Egyptian media said the blast was caused by an improvised device detonated near a mosque in northwest Gaza.

The Turkish Anatalia news agency cited witnesses who said the blast was detonated in an area next to the mosque that was empty of people.

Sources in Gaza said that “from the beginning of the year, there have been incidents of blasts and shootings in Gaza, mostly following confrontations between Hamas and Gaza men.”

Maariv notes that in mid-March, the spokesman for the interior ministry in the Hamas government blamed Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s forces of trying to create chaos in Gaza, with car bombs and shootings. Abbas’s Fatah terror organization denied any link to the said incidents.

A Palestinian Authority official said Monday a delegation was heading to Damascus for talks on helping residents inside the Yarmouk camp, parts of which have been overrun by the Islamic State jihadi group. ISIS has claimed the beheadings of at least two Hamas commanders.

Hundreds of families were evacuated from the camp in a southern neighborhood of Damascus after ISIS jihadists launched on attack on Wednesday.

Palestinian forces inside Yarmouk – mainly aligned with Hamas – are largely surrounded by ISIS fighters who have captured the majority of the camp. On Monday, ISIS uploaded a video claiming to show the moment it completed its takeover of the camp, though that claim that has not yet been independently verified.

Randomly fired mortar shells continue to fall in Benghazi killing and wounding local residents, wrote LibyaHerald.

According to Jalaa Hospital said two civilians, one of them a child, were injured yesterday as a result of such shelling.

Seven-year-old Saja Mohammed Ferjany was injured in the foot by shrapnel at her home in Buhdeima while Ali Mohammed Ali, 28, was injured by shrapnel in Hay Shuhada Zawiat (previously Hay Fateh)

The two areas are close to Leithi, scene of continuing clashes.

On Thursday, three civilians were killed as a result of indiscriminate shelling and shooting almost all of which is being blamed on Ansar Al-Sharia and its allies.

One has been named as 70-year-old Mohammad Ali Musa, from West Salmani, shot in the heart by a random bullet. The other two were Egyptians: Omran Abdul Khaliq Hamida, 38, and Hussain Syed Zain (64). Both were killed when a random missile exploded.

On Friday, three civilians were rushed to hospital after being wounded in separate random attacks.

Even Benghazi’s hospitals are not immune. A mortar shell today hit the top floor of the second block of Benghazi Medical Centre. Fortunately, no one was injured although there material damage.

It is not the first time the BMC has been hit but it continues to operate despite the dangers.

It is also reported today that two soliders were killed and five others wounded in the fighting in Leithi. The dead have been named as Otman Imhemed Al-Burnawi, 22, and Moutaz Rajeb Jawad Al-Hassi, 32 – the latter a volunteer with the army from Leithi. He is said to have been shot by a sniper.

Last week, the hospital reported receiving two dead soldiers and 13 wounded. In March, it said, it had received 23 dead and 204 wounded.

Libya’s charges d’affaires at the Libyan embassy in Washington DC, Wafa Bugaighis, said that the international community should support its internationally recognized government and provide military aid to its Libyan National Army and support legitimacy in Libya – in order to limit the spread of IS in Libya.

Bugaighis, speaking to Bloomberg,  said that “the intervention in 2011 (by NATO) was welcomed. The situation now is different. We are a bit cautious that such strikes might not succeed in fighting terrorism because these people just dissolve and spread.”

“Our vision is that terrorism can be tackled now with information, intelligence, special operations, Special Forces. That will be more effective in fighting terrorism and this is the type of support we want.”, she said indicating that she did not think it was the right time for the western forces to bomb IS in Libya.

On the international community refusing to arm Libya now and choosing to wait until one unity government is formed, Bugaighis said that “many people say there are two governments in Libya. This is not true. The fact is one is legitimate and democratically elected, one is self-proclaimed and completely illegitimate.”

“The issue is, can we afford waiting? Terrorism is not going to give us a break and wait for us to form a government of national unity.” Bugaighis warned.

“Libya should not fall into the hands of terrorists. The danger of terrorism, if it takes over Libya, will not be contained to Libya”, she added, sounding a word of caution.

At least four people were killed and more than 20 wounded by a suicide bomb attack on a security checkpoint east of the Libyan city of Misrata, a local official news agency reported Sunday.

Libya is caught up in a conflict between two rival governments and armed forces who have attacked towns allied with opponents. But Islamist militants are also increasing their reach in the chaos since Moammar Gadhafi’s fall in 2011.

One woman and her two children were among the victims of the suicide blast at the checkpoint in Es Dada, east of Misrata, the LANA news agency associated with the Tripoli government said.

Misrata is a power base for the Libya Dawn forces who took over the capital Tripoli in the summer and set up their own self-declared government and parliament in a challenge to Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani’s recognized administration.

Misrata forces have also been fighting on a second front with militants tied to ISIS in the city of Sirte, where extremists and local Islamist militants have been expanding.

In a separate incident, warplanes from the recognized government carried out airstrikes on Tripoli’s outskirts Sunday, targetting Libya Dawn positions, an air force spokesman said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

Libya’s rival governments are backed by two loose coalitions of former rebel brigades who once fought together against Gaddafi but fell into internecine battles soon after the NATO-backed uprising ended his one-man regime.