The Battle of Benina Airport was a battle of the

Second Libyan Civil War The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

which lasted from August 2014 until October 2014 between the

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries The Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries (, ''Majlis Shura Thuwar Benghazi'') was a military coalition in Benghazi, Libya, composed of Islamist and jihadist militias, including Ansar al-Sharia, Libya Shield 1, and several other groups. H ...

supported by extremist fundamental groups such as Ansar al-Sharia, who attempted to capture the airport, and the

Libyan National Army The Libyan National Army (LNA; , ''al-jaysh al-waṭaniyy al-Lībii''), also known as the Libyan Arab Army (LAA; , ''al-Jaysh al-'Arabiyy al-Lībii'') or the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF; ), is a component of Libyan Armed Forces, Libya's mil ...

led by General

Khalifa Haftar Khalifa Haftar (; born 7 November 1943) is a Libyan-American politician, military officer, and the commander of the Tobruk-based Libyan National Army (LNA). In 2015, he was appointed commander of the armed forces loyal to the 2014 Libyan parliam ...

June–July 2014

In June and July 2014, armed militants going by the name of

began launching daily indiscriminate attacks on military bases and headquarters inside the city of Benghazi belonging to Libyan armed forces led by

, that later became known as the

, this forced the LNA to abandon all its headquarters withdraw from the city. The LNA units managed to regroup their forces on the suburb district of Benina (15km east of Benghazi) and took Benina Airport as its main headquarters for launching further operations and combating the militia groups inside Benghazi. By the end of July 2014, forces of the

fully took over the city of Benghazi from the

and Mohamed al-Zahawi, leader of Ansar al-Sharia and a commander of the

declared Benghazi an "Islamic Emirate" and vowed to advance all his forces towards Benina and take Benina Airport from the

August–October 2014

On the beginning of August, the

moved towards Benina and launched a full-scale offensive on Benina Airport in an attempt to capture it from the

. However, they were immediately pushed back to Sidi Faraj bridge after forces of the

outside the airport fired back with heavy weaponry and heavily bombarded their positions, causing them to pull back. On mid August The

carried out heavy airstrikes on

forces positioned under Sidi Faraj bridge, killing hundreds of fighters. On beginning of September a suicide bomber managed to drive into the

under Benina bridge (few hundred meters away from the airport) and detonated, killing 12 soldiers and wounding others. After the suicide bombing the

immediately attempted to advance to the airport once more, but failed again after soldiers positioned on Benina bridge and nearby buildings in the area began heavily firing on their positions, killing at least 60 fighters and forcing them to fall back to Sidi Faraj bridge. On the beginning of October the

began attacking Sidi Faraj bridge and the militia forces positioned there, heavy clashes took for a whole day and the

managed to take Sidi Faraj bridge, as a result of the operation, up to 150 militia fighters of the

were killed, meanwhile the

lost 17 soldiers. As the forces of the

began abandoning their positions near Benina Airport, the

began bombarding their last remaining pockets around the area with airstrikes just as the

began to flee towards Benghazi, also killing their commander Mohamed al-Zahawi in the process. Despite many attempts by the

to regroup and relaunch the attack on the airport again, all their attempts resulted in failure. By mid October the

suffered a significant death toll among their ranks, including Mohamed al-Zahawi. This left their fighters leaderless in the middle of the battle and in a state of vacuum and disorder amongst their commanders and fighters. After learning of Zahawi's death, the

took advantage by launching heavier attacks on the

killing hundreds more fighters, forcing the

to fully abandon all their positions outside Benina and withdraw to the center of Benghazi. By 15 October the

advanced and managed to push back the

to the center of the city of

Benghazi Benghazi () () is the List of cities in Libya, second-most-populous city in Libya as well as the largest city in Cyrenaica, with an estimated population of 859,000 in 2023. Located on the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, Ben ...

, resulting in the beginning of the Battle of Benghazi (2015).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benina Airport 2014 Military operations of the Libyan civil war (2014–2020) in 2014 History of Benghazi Battles involving airports

Benina Airport Benina International Airport () serves Benghazi, Libya. It is located in the borough of Benina, 19 kilometres (12 mi) east of Benghazi, from which it takes its name. The airport is operated by the Libyan Civil Aviation Authority, Civil Av ...

Attacks on airports in Libya Attacks on buildings and structures in 2014 August 2014 in Libya September 2014 in Libya October 2014 in Libya