Algeria exceptionally opened its border with Libya to allow in 14 Egyptian expatriates Saturday through the Dabdab crossing in the Illizi province, state-run MENA reported. One of them arrived to Cairo International Airport on a private jet from Ain Aminas airport, while the remaining 13 await flight tickets to return Sunday, after being received at the border by a mission from the Egyptian Embassy in Algeria. The border is close to Tripoli on the Libyan side, which is nearly 400 km from the city of Sirte, where the beheading of 20 Egyptian Coptic workers by members of "Islamic State" is believed by experts to have occurred. The beheadings prompted thousands of Egyptian expatriates in Libya to wish to move, especially those among the Coptic community, with increasing murders targeting them for over a year, in addition to the kidnappings of truck drivers, fishermen and workers. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has been calling on its citizens to return home amid efforts to ensure the safety of and facilitate their return. An alternative border crossing used to transport them was the Ras Ajdir crossing to the Tunisian city of Djerba. Thousands of Egyptians have similarly fled the turmoil Libya through the Salloum border crossing to the Egyptian Mediterranean city of Matruh. However, all three borders are subject to regular halting of crossing activity for security reasons. In the battlefield of Benghazi Saturday, the Libyan army affiliated to the Tobruk-based government claimed Saturday that it took over lands seized by the troops of the ‘Benghazi Revolutionary Council' Islamist militias, MENA reported. Egypt and Libya coordinated airstrikes in mid-February in the Libyan city of Derna, against purported targets of "Islamic State" in Libya.
